Improved early detection of breast cancer with MRI compared to mammography in high-risk women

A prospective American study recently published in Clinical Cancer Research shows that bi-annual screening with MRI performs better than mammography for the detection of breast tumors in women who are at high-risk of developing disease based on genetics. This is particularly evident in women who carries the mutation BRCA1 (Guindalini et al., DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-18-0200).

The recall rate due to false positive diagnoses with MRI was lower in the current study compared to previous ones. The relatively high rate of false positives compared to other imaging modalities is nevertheless a limiting factor for the use of MRI. A tumor selective contrast agent with high signal strength (relaxivity)may provide increased specificity in MRI-diagnoses and could open the door for MRI as a routine method for screening and surveillance of women at increased risk of developing breast cancer and also for imaging in other cancer indications.