MRI scans 'improve breast cancer detection'
Friday, 10 Aug 2007 18:06
Mammography is currently the accepted method of finding breast cancer
Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans could detect breast cancer in its earliest stages more successfully than mammography, researchers have concluded.
Mammography is currently the accepted method of finding breast cancer, with MRI used to diagnose invasive breast cancer.
But the new study published in the Lancet journal has led to calls for MRI to be regarded as a distinct method for finding the cancer in its earliest form.
Researchers at the University of Bonn studied 7,000 women using both methods.
Of the 167 women diagnosed with the very early cancer form 'ductal carcinoma in situ' (DCIS), 152 (92 per cent) of these were found using MRT, 93 (56 per cent) with mammography.
If detected at this stage the cancer can be operated on, preventing it from growing out of the milk ducts into the breast's glandular tissue and spreading via blood and lymph vessels in the body.
"Our study suggests that the sensitivity of film screen or digital mammography for diagnosing DCIS is limited…MRI could help improve the ability to diagnose DCIS, especially DCIS with high nuclear grade," the researchers concluded.
In an accompanying comment in the Lancet, Dr Carla Boetes and Dr Ritse Mann of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Netherlands, said: "These findings can only lead to the conclusion that MRI outperforms mammography in tumour detection and diagnosis.
"MRI should thus no longer be regarded as an adjunct to mammography but as a distinct method to detect breast cancer in its earliest stage. A large-scale multicentre breast-screening trial with MRI in the general population is essential."