CAD Systems Gain Momentum in Europe

Computer-aided detection (CAD) systems have slowly established themselves as a vital technology in the radiology department, with their ability to increase breast cancer detection rates by nearly 25%.

"Raising cancer awareness has become a high priority in the medical community, and CAD system developers are riding on the success of the various breast screening programs implemented all over Europe,” said research analyst Srividya Badrinarayanan, from Frost & Sullivan, a technology consulting firm (Palo Alto, CA, USA).

The United Kingdom is planning to establish mobile screening programs that are expected to serve a larger and more diverse patient population, thus providing additional momentum for the CAD system market. The various screening programs have demonstrated the benefits of CAD systems, not only in terms of excellent detection capabilities, but also in providing integration with clinical workflow, sensitivity of changes in image acquisition, and efficiency in highlighting and interpreting cancer-affected areas.


With the introduction of digital mammography, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are directly incorporating CAD into the mammography systems and marketing them as a single unit. Developers of CAD systems are entering into mutually beneficial strategic alliances with OEMs of digital mammography machines in an attempt to block out competition. In a partnership with OEMs, CAD developers can introduce new products with better features and within shorter time frames.

However, with market leaders comprising nearly 90% of the total market, this is going to be a challenging undertaking. In the future, companies that offer multimodality CAD systems extending to computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technologies for diagnosing other diseases apart from cancer stand to gain enormously. Archiving, combined mammography and ultrasound, risk prediction and dynamic MR breast imaging are the most significant technologies that are expected to make a great impact in the future.

For now, developers of CAD need to pay close attention to the lung/CT CAD systems that are used to detect cancerous growth (rather than for screening use as in mammography applications), and therefore offer the opportunities to expand market reach. Virtual colonoscopy will also probably become a big success, given the growing number of colon cancer patients.



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