MRI coupled with mammography detects almost all cancers at an early stage, thereby reducing the incidence of advanced-stage breast cancer in high-risk women, according to a new study released at this week's San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
Researchers, led by Dr. Ellen Warner, medical oncologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto, separated 1,275 women at high risk for breast cancer into two groups. One group was screened with MRI and mammography, while a control group received conventional screening by mammography alone.
Forty-one cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in the MRI group, compared with 76 diagnoses in the control group. There were proportionately fewer advanced breast cancers and more early cancers among women screened with MRI compared to subjects not screened with MRI.
In addition, cancer size was smaller in the MRI group. The average size of invasive cancers in the MRI group was 0.9 cm, compared to 1.8 cm in the control group. Also, 3% of cancers in the MRI group were larger than 2 cm in diameter, compared with 29% of those in the control group.
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