The scientific hurdles could be lowered. Among the institute's recommendations is that the U.S. National Cancer Institute, in Bethesda, Md., establish a permanent infrastructure for testing new detection technologies as they emerge. That infrastructure might include databases and archives of clinical samples. The institute also urged a streamlining of the process for gaining government reimbursement and FDA approval for new technologies. In particular, the committee proposed that conditional reimbursement be granted for a diagnostic technology whose developers wished to pursue a large-scale screening trial, so that the technology could be assessed more quickly.
Economic obstacles loom large as well.
New technologies like digital mammography are not cheap.