A new study suggests that an MRI to the breast may help find potentially aggressive malignant tumors that could otherwise be undetected by mammography.
The study, which is already published in the online version of Radiology, points out that breast MRI is capable of finding large tumors that may already be invasive and more aggressive. Further, these tumors may be the ones that are not found by mammography, which is the standard screening test for breast cancer, and those who have dense breasts. Since dense breasts have less fatty tissues and they appear white in a mammogram, it's more difficult to find tumors.
MRI has already been known to be effective in determining multicentric cancers, or malignant tumors that appear in different quadrants of the breasts. In fact, it's a preferred screening and pre-surgical method because of its invasiveness. However, there's a growing debate as to its clinical significance. Simply put, is it necessary for a woman with suspicious breast cancer to undergo breast MRI?
To understand the importance of breast MRI, Italian researchers led by Dr Chiara Iacconi reviewed the medical data of 2,021 women with breast cancer. These women underwent breast MRI and biopsy based on the MRI results.
The breast MRI exam conducted had detected the presence of more cancer aside from the one that was caught by mammography among 14% of the group or 285 of the patients. At least 25% of the 285 women were discovered to have breast cancer that was found in another breast quadrant, which can indicate that they had a multicentric cancer. Although multicentric cancers were present among dense breasts, around 19% of these women actually had fatty breast tissues or scattered fibroglandular breasts.
About 17 of the patients with multicentric cancers had tumors whose size was more than one centimeter, which may mean that they are already invasive. For the team, the size of the tumor is significant since it can help decide the best treatment for women. Radiation therapy, for example, works better if the size of the tumor is less than a centimeter.