Definitive evidence for the use of breast MRI in malignant lesions

Mitchell Schnall, representing the International Breast MRI Consortium, recently presented the results of a breast MRI study on 1000 women, at the Association of Clinical Oncology meeting being held currently.

Basically the study shows that MRI detects more lesions than mammography in patients who are being evaluated for a suspicious lesion. "Of the 428 women who had breast cancer, MRI detected additional cancerous lesions in 56 women, while mammograms detected additional lesions in only 17. In statistical terms, MRI was more than 2 times as effective than mammography in detecting multiple tumors."

This makes a difference in those patients who are contemplating any sort of surgery short of a mastectomy, since the only modality today that can show multifocal lesions and additional lesions conclusively is contrast enhanced MRI.

If this modality is used by breast surgeons routinely for staging prior to breast conservation surgery, it will increase the number of patients being referred for breast MRI.