"We want to find a screening modality that can improve detection in high-risk young women, including those with dense breast tissue," said presenter Constance Dobbins Lehman, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor and director of breast imaging at the University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.
The medical community has been trying to determine the best screening method for women genetically at high risk for developing breast cancer. According to Dr. Lehman, as many as 50 percent of certain high-risk subgroups will develop breast cancer before the age of 50. Mammography performs very well for the general population but is not optimal for imaging dense breast tissue. Women at genetically high risk need to be screened at a younger age, when they are more likely to have dense breast tissue.
Researchers at 13 sites studied 367 women over age 25 (mean age 45) with at least a 25 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer to compare screening performance of MRI and mammography in high-risk patients. Each of the women underwent MRI, mammography and a clinical breast exam.
The researchers found that MRI had a 1.1 percent diagnostic yield, and mammography had a 0.3 percent diagnostic yield, meaning that MRI would detect 11 cancers in 1,000 high-risk women while mammography would detect three.
"MR findings resulted in 6 percent of women with a negative mammogram and a negative clinical breast exam being recommended for biopsy," she continued. "Three additional cancers were de
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Contact: Maureen Morley
mmorley@rsna.org
630-590-7762
Radiological Society of North America
1-Dec-2004