MRIs help in detecting breast cancer

In women newly diagnosed with cancer in one breast, an MRI can find the disease in the opposite breast more effectively than standard mammography or clinical examination, scientists said

In women newly diagnosed with cancer in one breast, an MRI can find the disease in the opposite breast more effectively than standard mammography or clinical examination, scientists said on Tuesday.

MRI, which stands for magnetic resonance imaging, detected cancers that had been missed by other methods in 3.1 per cent of patients in a clinical study, researchers said.

The report, published online by The New England Journal of Medicine, means nearly 180,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the US each year should get an MRI done, said Constance Lehman, lead study author and professor of radiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

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The additional screening can help spare women from unnecessary mastectomies or repeated treatments because of inaccuracies of conventional methods.

“This has the potential to help women make better decisions about the course of their treatment,” said Robert A. Smith, director of cancer screening for the American Cancer Society and author of an accompanying editorial.

John Glaspy, director of the outpatient oncology clinic at the Jonsson Cancer Centre at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the study would change medical practice—but at a cost of many millions of dollars.