MRI Breast Cancer Screening In High-Risk Women Boosts Detection Rates

Using MRI to screen women with a history of lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) improved the rate of cancer detection, a pair of new studies show.

MRI shows known breast cancer on the left side of the image. The left breast (right side of the image) reveals a small occult cancer that was not clinically apparent or visible on the screening mammogram. (Image courtesy University of Washington Breast Center)

LCIS is a non-invasive breast cancer that requires no immediate or active treatment, according to the American Cancer Society; however having LCIS increases the risk that these women will later develop a malignant tumor. Consequently these women are closely followed with yearly mammograms and a clinical breast exams.


Adding magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to screen for
breast cancer is controversial. A 2007 European review of
MRI with mammography for high-risk women found that
MRI improved sensitivity to as high as 94 percent, but specificity with MRI was less consistent with a 3-5-fold
higher risk of patient recall for false positive results. (Link to published site)

CAD software serves as a "second
read" for screening mammography,
marking image patterns for the
radiologist to review. (Image
courtesy of Hologic, Inc.)

Real World Study Questions Effectiveness of CAD  Mammography

Computer-aided detection tools add to the cost of screening mammography for breast cancer but add little in terms of finding undetected harmful tumors, while increasing the number of false positives, a new study shows.

In what may be the largest study of real-world use of CAD mammography, researchers with the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium led by Dr. Joshua Fenton analyzed 1.6 million mammograms from 680,000 women in seven states.  Their study was published online today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. (Link to published site)