Study: MR Imaging Better Than Mammography for High-Risk Women

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging can find breast cancers that mammography has missed and should be considered for screening high-risk women, according to researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Elizabeth Morris reported at the American Roentgen Ray Society annual meeting on a study of 367 women who were at high risk for breast cancer due to a personal or family history, who had premalignant breast lesions, or who were carriers of BRCA gene mutations that increase breast cancer risk.

Based on the MR results, 59 women underwent a biopsy.

“Biopsy revealed cancer that was not previously seen on a mammogram or felt on a physical examination in 17 (24 percent) of these women,” reported Morris. “Biopsy revealed high-risk lesions in 13 women and benign disease in the remaining group of women."

More than half of the MR detected cancers were ductal carcinoma in-situ (DCIS), said Morris. “These were early cancer, pre-invasive cancers."

MR imaging found cancer undetectable by mammography or physical examination in 17 women, or 24%, of the group. High-risk lesions were detected in another 13 women and benign disease was found in the remainder.

While Morris emphasized that an annual mammogram is still appropriate for screening the majority of women over 40, she said "there is a lot of interest in MR screening for breast cancer, particularly for high risk women."

Other sources: American Roentgen Ray Society