Using MRI For Diagnosis Could Help Prevent Breast Cancer Progression

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to diagnose breast cancer in its intraductal stage could help prevent the development of invasive cancer, conclude authors of an Article in this week’s edition of The Lancet. And an accompanying Comment says that the findings show that MRI should now be used as a distinct method in its own right to detect breast cancer in its earliest stage.

Professor Christiane Kuhl, Department of Radiology, University of Bonn, Germany and colleagues studied 7319 women over a five-year period who had been referred to an academic breast centre. The women received MRI in addition to conventional mammography for diagnostic assessment and screening, with the aim of discovering the sensitivity of each method for diagnosing ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Mammograms and MRI scans were then assessed independently by different radiologists, and the relative sensitivity of each method of detection was assessed by comparing the biological profiles of mammography-detected DCIS with those of MRI-detected DCIS.

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