MRIs for Women at Risk for Breast Cancer

Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer in one breast may want to have an MRI to screen the other breast for cancer as well -- even if mammography and a physical exam have suggested the breast is free of cancer.

According to a new study, MRIs are significantly better at uncovering cancer in these cases and could save women who are ultimately diagnosed with breast cancer in their other breast from going through treatment twice.

"In addition to early detection ... MRI, if positive, can lead to simultaneous treatment of synchronous cancers rather than multiple treatments on separate occasions," write the authors.

The research was carried out by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill investigators, who followed 969 women recently diagnosed with breast cancer at 25 centers in the United States and Canada. MRIs revealed about 3 percent of the women also had cancer in the opposite breast despite negative findings on other tests. Mammography would generally pick up only about four to seven opposite breast cancers per every 1,000 women screened -- about 10-times less effective than MRI.

While the investigators stop short of recommending all women have MRIs to detect breast cancer -- the procedure is expensive and also doesn't detect calcifications in the breast, which are an early sign of breast cancer and are uncovered by mammography -- they believe these results suggest the test should be offered to women who are already diagnosed with breast cancer in one breast.

source:www.drkoop.com