After skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women in the United States.

It is estimated that nearly 40-thousand women in the U.S. lost their lives to breast cancer in 2011, though death rates have been decreasing since 1990 especially in patients under 50. That positive trend is believed to be because of better treatments, and early detection.

Mammograms are the usual screening test; but according to a new study, digital mammograms, may be a better tool than screen film for detection.

Researchers in the Netherlands looked at more than 1 million tests with nearly 19-thousand patients called back for a second look. The more sensitive, digital mammography improved detection of life-threatening cancer by a full 8-percentage points, and it did so without increasing detection of low-grade lesions, which can lead to possible over-diagnosis.

The study just published online in the journal Radiology concludes that digital mammography is substantially better than screen film mammography.

I'm Dr. Cindy Haines of HealthDay TV, with the news the doctors are reading, health news that matters to you.