Some Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer are Advised to Undergo Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI) in Addition to Mammography
Mammograms have been and will continue to be an excellent tool when it comes to detecting breast cancer. In fact breast cancer mortality rate among patients with breast cancer has seen a decline of greater than 2% per year since 1990, thanks to simple mammograms.
Recently in the news the American Cancer Society has set out a guideline that certain women with an especially high risk of developing breast cancer should get MR scans along with their yearly mammogram. These primarily include women who may carry genes that increase their risk of breast cancer.
Dr. Jennifer Harvey, Director of UVa Breast Imaging, says " MRI detects small invasive breast cancers that typically have not spread to lymph nodes yet. These early cancers are very treatable, indicating that MRI for screening will likely reduce the number of cancer deaths for these women who are at very high risk."
Also published in the New England Journal of Medicine March 28, 2007, a study shows that 3% of women with newly diagnosed breast cancer will have additional breast cancers seen only on MRI. Gia A. DeAngelis, M.D., Associate Professor of Radiology was the site principle investigator at UVa for this study and Bruce J. Hillman, M.D., Professor of Radiology at the University of Virginia is the Chair of the American College of Radiology Imaging Network (ACRIN) the body conducting the trial on which this article is based.
Doctors wishing to refer a patient to UVa Breast Care Center for either a mammogram or MR scan are encouraged to contact:
Breast Care Center
University of Virginia Medical Center
1335 Lee Street
Charlottesville, VA
tel. (434) 924-5194
fax (434) 924-5672
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