SEATTLE, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Magnetic resonance imaging can identify tumors missed by mammography and ultrasound, a U.S. study of women at high-risk for breast cancer shows.
Researchers at six U.S. facilities studied 171 asymptomatic high-risk women over age 25 -- average age 46 -- with at least a 20 percent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer to compare screening performance of MRI and mammography. Each woman underwent MRI, mammography and ultrasound.
Sixteen biopsies were performed, and six cancers were detected -- all six of the cancers were detected with MRI, while two cancers were detected with mammography and one cancer was detected with ultrasound.
Biopsy rates were 8.2 percent for MRI and 2.3 percent for mammography and ultrasound. The positive predictive value of biopsies performed as a result of MRI findings was 43 percent, the study published in the the journal Radiology said.
While, MRI has been shown to be an effective screening tool for women genetically predisposed to developing breast cancer, there is no evidence to support MRI screening in average-risk women, according to lead author Dr. Constance Dobbins Lehman, of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.
