The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Board of Governors has approved $7.5 million in funding for a clinical effectiveness research study led by Diana L. Miglioretti, PhD, dean’s professor in biostatistics at the University of California, Davis. The goal of the study is to research the effectiveness of digital breast tomosynthesis and MRI when used with mammography for cancer screening.

“3D mammography holds great promise of improving breast cancer detection and decreasing the rate of false alarms,” Miglioretti said in a prepared statement. “But some women may not benefit from tomosynthesis, and some may even experience more harms and unnecessary costs.”

The study will also investigate how a woman’s breast density may impact the effectiveness of these various screening technologies.

“These laws require informing women if they have dense breasts on a mammogram, and yet we don’t know what to do differently for these women,” Miglioretti said in the same statement. “Mammography is still our best tool for detecting breast cancer in women with dense breasts. We want to see if adding tomosynthesis or MRI might improve cancer detection in these women.”

Miglioretti’s study is one of four projects approved by the PCORI Board of Governors, totaling more than $20 million in funding.