Breast Cancers Show Surprising Characteristics on.......

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Breast Cancers Show " Surprising Characteristics " on Magnetic

Resonance Imaging

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ALEXANDRIA, VA -- May 6, 2004 -- MRI can effectively detect cancers

missed by mammography and physical examination, but cancers can have

some surprising characteristics on the MR image, a new study shows.

The study included 59 women with 65 cancers that were not detected by

physical examination or on a mammogram, said Lia Bartella, MD,

assistant professor of radiology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer

Center in New York. The classic criteria for cancer on an MR image is

a mass that looks bright after contrast media is injected into the

breast, but it quite quickly loses its brightness, said Dr.

Bartella. " In 63% of these patients, this didn't happen, " she said.

The mass took up the contrast, but there was no quick washout, " she

said. One lesion showed progressive kinetics, which means that it got

brighter and brighter on the MR image. This often happens when the

lesion is benign, Dr. Bartella said. In addition, Dr. Bartella noted

that in 62% of the cases, the cancer did not look like a mass.

Most of the cancers (70%) were stage 1 disease; 28% were stage 2, and

2% of the women had distant metastases, indicating that MRI can

detect breast cancer at an early stage, said Dr. Bartella. Most of

the women (68%) had a mastectomy, Dr. Bartella said. It is important

to note that these women chose mastectomy; MRI offered most of them

the chance to have breast-conserving treatment because their disease

was caught early, she said.

These women were sent for an MRI examination for several reasons –13

of the women were at high risk of breast cancer; 41 of the women had

known breast cancer, and the MRI was done to determine the extent of

disease; and five of the women had an MRI after a problem was

detected, but physicians were unsure of the diagnosis, said Dr.

Bartella.

Dr. Bartella will present the study on May 6 at the American Roentgen

Ray Society Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, FL.

SOURCE: American Roentgen Ray Society

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