MRI Beats Mammogram, Study Says: Scan Found More Breast Cancer Cases, High Grade Tumors

Jun 04, 02:10 AM

Current Headlines: By Kawanza Newson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Jun. 4--CHICAGO -- MRI scans are better than mammograms at detecting the most aggressive forms of early breast cancer, according to findings released at a national cancer meeting on Sunday.

The news comes on the heels of guidelines released in late March recommending MRIs for women with at least a 20% to 25% lifetime risk for the disease. This includes women with a strong family history of breast or ovarian cancer and women who have been treated for Hodgkin's disease.

"The role of MRI is not well defined yet, though it's certainly promising in many areas," said James Youker, a radiologist at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa and chairman of the department of radiology of the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Still, the combined studies are helping doctors get a clearer picture of the tumors that need the most the aggressive treatment, said Youker, who was not involved in the study.

Magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, is a screening tool that produces detailed pictures of internal organs and tissue.

It is a non-invasive procedure and is widely used to diagnose a variety of conditions, including heart disease, cancer and injuries of muscles and ligaments.

For cancer, MRI screening has been on the rise because it's better at finding small tumors and examining women with dense breasts.

The new study found that MRI detected cancer in 153 out of 167 women who were diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, an early stage breast cancer, whereas mammography only found tumors in 93 of the women.

MRI also picked up more tumors that were considered high grade, meaning they would likely spread.

"This is key and will help us pick out which cancers need treatment and which don't," said Julie Gralow, an assistant professor of oncology at the University of Washington. She was not involved in the study.

Radiation study

Also at the meeting, findings were presented showing that delivering fewer, larger doses of radiation after surgery doesn't increase the risk of breast cancer recurrence and does not cause additional side effects.

Women in the United States diagnosed with breast cancer get 50 units of radiation over five weeks, something that is burdensome to the patients who have to come in daily for their treatment, said Julia White, an associate professor of radiation oncology at the Medical College.

"The more radiation you give per day, you expect to get some injury to healthy tissue that would manifest over time," she said.

"You would think you would begin to see these differences at five years, but we're not seeing that with this study and that's a good thing."

For the study, researchers from the University of Dundee in Scotland conducted two separate studies, one looking at the effects of 50 units of radiation given in larger doses over a shorter time period and another looking at delivering less than 50 doses in fewer weeks.

"This is very exciting news for our patients," Gralow said.

"If we can achieve the same outcome with less trips to the doctors office, then this will be a tremendous benefit to our women."

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