MRI can detect 90 percent of breast cancers

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

A recent study has determined that approximately 90 percent of breast cancers can be diagnosed via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). 

The research team, based at the University Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the MedUni Vienna, in cooperation with the University Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics and the Clinical Institute of Pathology, compared results from mammography, ultrasound, and MRI testing.

Records from 559 women with breast cancer were reviewed, which totaled 1,365 screening tests. Ultrasound alone was not useful in detecting the breast cancer, whereas MRI clearly established the presence of breast cancer approximately 90 percent of the time.

The addition of mammography screen to MRI increased detection by approximately 5 percent. Screening results for the various methods to detect benign lesions was comparable. Results were also unaffected by the variables of gene mutation, age of the patient, or degree of breast density.

Study leaders Thomas Helbich and Christopher Riedl feel the results should serve as a call for increased use of NRI for breast cancer detection, and that high-risk individuals with a family history of breast cancer should opt for yearly MRI testing.

The current EU ratio is 10 MRI scanners per one million inhabitants, a somewhat low ratio if MRI testing were to be increased. 

Study findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.