Proceed with Caution: MRI Evaluation in Women with New Breast Cancer

MRI detected occult contralateral cancers in 3% of women, but 10% received false-positive results that led to biopsies.

Detecting a second breast cancer in a woman with unilateral breast cancer is an ongoing concern. Even when mammogram results are normal, as many as 10% of women with unilateral breast cancer will develop cancer in the contralateral breast. In an American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) study, researchers evaluated the role of contralateral breast magnetic resonance imaging in 969 women with new diagnoses of breast cancer. Contralateral mammograms were normal in all patients. MRIs were performed within 60 days of first breast cancer diagnoses.

Of 121 positive MRI results, contralateral breast cancers were verified by tissue diagnoses in 30 women (3.1% of patients; 18 invasive carcinomas and 12 ductal carcinomas in situ [DCIS]). T…

Reviewing Author

Henry Mark Kuerer, MD, PhD, FACS

Proceed with Caution: MRI Evaluation in Women with New Breast Cancer

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