Dr. Wendy DeMartini and colleagues in the breast imaging department at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance developed a preliminary statistical model that breast radiologists could eventually use when deciding whether a lesion found on breast MRI is likely to be malignant or benign.

The researchers reviewed almost 2,600 breast MRI exams performed during a four-year period at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance found three crucial patient and lesion characteristics that, when used in combination, could predict the likelihood of malignancy, including identifying some lesions with probabilities of cancer close to zero.

Such a model, if confirmed by more research, could be beneficial because MRI exams are so sensitive that they reveal cancerous and non-cancerous lesions that often look alike and behave similarly when contrast dye is injected into the patient, DeMartini said.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago.