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The role of magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of breast cancer
Affiliations- Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging Department, Maria Skłodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Centre and Institute of Oncology, Branch in Gliwice, Poland
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Abstract
MR mammography is a highly sensitive (> 98%) and slightly lower specificity (> 80%) method of detecting breast cancer. The sensitivity of MR mammography in detecting low or medium grade DCIS is lower than in detecting invasive carcinomas and high grade DCIS. Achieving the high efficacy of MR mammography is only possible with a very good quality MR examination; this however is not always easy to accomplish. According to EUSOBI 2015 recommendations, the indications for breast MRI are: screening women with a high risk of breast cancer; preoperative staging of newly diagnosed breast cancer; evaluating the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy; occult primary breast carcinoma (searching for breast cancer in patients with metastases and negative mammography and breast ultrasound); suspected local recurrence whenever needle biopsy proves impossible; assessing breast implants; further characterisation of equivocal lesions found by mammography/breast ultrasound, whenever needle biopsy proves impossible. The introduction of Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) and contrast-enhanced spectral mammography (CESM) into daily clinical practice in the recent years has created the need to re-analyse the indications for MR mammography and to develop a new breast cancer diagnostic imaging algorithm.
Abstract
MR mammography is a highly sensitive (> 98%) and slightly lower specificity (> 80%) method of detecting breast cancer. The sensitivity of MR mammography in detecting low or medium grade DCIS is lower than in detecting invasive carcinomas and high grade DCIS. Achieving the high efficacy of MR mammography is only possible with a very good quality MR examination; this however is not always easy to accomplish. According to EUSOBI 2015 recommendations, the indications for breast MRI are: screening women with a high risk of breast cancer; preoperative staging of newly diagnosed breast cancer; evaluating the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy; occult primary breast carcinoma (searching for breast cancer in patients with metastases and negative mammography and breast ultrasound); suspected local recurrence whenever needle biopsy proves impossible; assessing breast implants; further characterisation of equivocal lesions found by mammography/breast ultrasound, whenever needle biopsy proves impossible. The introduction of Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) and contrast-enhanced spectral mammography (CESM) into daily clinical practice in the recent years has created the need to re-analyse the indications for MR mammography and to develop a new breast cancer diagnostic imaging algorithm.
Keywords
breast cancer, magnetic resonance imaging, breast MRI, MR mammography, occult breast cancer
About this articleTitle
The role of magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of breast cancer
Journal
Nowotwory. Journal of Oncology
Issue
Article type
Review paper
Pages
185-192
Published online
2017-12-12
Page views
717
Article views/downloads
1085
DOI
Bibliographic record
Nowotwory. Journal of Oncology 2017;67(3):185-192.
Keywords
breast cancer
magnetic resonance imaging
breast MRI
MR mammography
occult breast cancer
Authors
Barbara Bobek-Billewicz
Marek K. Jurkowski