Film-reading ability of radiographers in detecting gastric cancer during screening using X-ray examination.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the film-reading ability of radiographers in detecting gastric cancer during screening X-ray examinations. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A test set of 100 patients (50 negative and 50 positive; mean age 62 years, range 33-78 years) given a stomach X-ray examination were selected from those who underwent gastric cancer screening in Osaka, Japan, between 2000 and 2003. Eleven radiographers and four radiologists scored the test set on a five-point scale. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was defined as a measure of film-reading ability to detect cancer. RESULTS: No significant difference (two-tailed P = 0.962, Welch's t-test) was observed between averaged AUC values from radiographers (0.76, range 0.85-0.62) and radiologists (0.75, range 0.86-0.62). CONCLUSION: Film-reading ability of radiographers in detecting gastric cancer during screening X-ray examinations was not significantly different from that of radiologists. Our results suggest that radiographers can assist radiologists to detect gastric cancer during screening.