SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp. is teaming up with Oxford University and the British government to build a sophisticated computer grid designed for earlier screening and diagnosis of breast cancer.

Dubbed eDiamond, the computer grid will let hospitals and physicians store and share mammograms in standardized digital form.

A computer grid is a cluster of servers and computers linked through the Internet.

The software, developed by Britain's Mirada Solutions, will help radiologists accurately compare and evaluate mammography scans stored on eDiamond -- no matter where or when they were created, IBM said.

``We're applying the vast computing power of a grid to create a massive digital `photo album' of mammogram scans available to medical experts across the UK,'' said Nicholas Donofrio, senior vice president, technology and manufacturing for IBM, the world's largest computer company.

The eDiamond project -- announced during October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month -- is significant because of controversy during the past year over the accuracy of mammograms in detecting breast cancer and saving lives. The films can be hard to read.

Women in the United States are advised to have annual mammograms beginning at age 40. In Britain and other countries, women begin undergoing screening exams later and do not have mammograms as often.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer, excluding skin cancer, among women in the United States, the American Cancer Society said. An estimated 203,500 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in American women this year and about 39,600 women will die of the disease, according to the ACS.

In the United Kingdom and the United States, early detection and better treatment during the 1990s prevented about 20,000 breast cancer deaths in the U.K. and about 40,000 U.S. deaths, according to a study published in May 2000 in the British medical journal Lancet.

FIRST `OFF-THE-SHELF' GRID

IBM, based in Armonk, New York, said the eDiamond grid will be the first one built entirely with off-the-shelf, commercially available technology. Many computing grids so far have been created using proprietary, customized software and technology.

The notion of a computer grid to improve medical treatment, as well as for other research, has been gaining steam, particularly in academic communities. The idea is to link computers, from dozens of servers to potentially millions, to make computing power available on demand, rather like water or electricity.

The project represents an investment of about $6 million by IBM and the British government.

IBM will contribute servers, storage systems, workstations and other computing hardware.

Oxford plans to integrate middleware -- a type of software that ties together different software applications on networks -- and other software programs from IBM.

In addition to letting hospitals store and share mammograms in digital form, IBM said the eDiamond grid will give physicians advanced analytical tools and capabilities to improve the diagnosis of breast cancer.

Mammogram images will be data mined, allowing physicians to develop new forms of treatment by conducting in-depth studies to determine the impact of environment and lifestyle on the development of breast cancer, IBM said.

IBM expects the grid to help reduce the rate of false-positive diagnosis, as well as overcome the challenge of inconsistent image formats and lost films that prevent proper diagnosis.

eDiamond also will allow physicians to study and compare similar cases so they can develop better treatment options.

Initially, IBM said the grid will link a large database of mammograms shared by St. Georges Hospital and Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Trust Hospitals in London, the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, and the Breast Screening Centers in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland.

The project could eventually be expanded to all 92 screening centers throughout Britain, creating that country's first national digital mammography archive, IBM said.