12.11.2009

MRI Detects Breast Cancer at Earlier Stage

SAN ANTONIO - Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) coupled with mammography detects almost all cancers at an early stage, thereby reducing the incidence of advanced stage breast cancer in high-risk women.

"Earlier stage breast cancers are more likely to be curable," said lead researcher Ellen Warner, M.D., M.Sc., medical oncologist in the Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, in Toronto, Canada.

"We can be fairly confident that if screening with MRI finds cancers at a much earlier stage, it probably also saves lives," added Warner, who presented details of these results at the CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 9-13.

The researchers separated 1,275 women at high risk for breast cancer into two groups: One group was screened with MRI plus mammography, and the second, a control group, received conventional screening by mammography. Participants had the defective BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation, which suggests a very high lifetime risk of developing breast cancer.

Warner and colleagues followed the women over several years to determine which screening method detected cancer at a significantly earlier stage.

source: AACR

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