(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- The best breast cancer detection could be
alternating scans.
New findings from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center show magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) alternated with mammography at six-month intervals can detect
breast cancer not found by mammography alone.
Studies have shown MRI is more sensitive than mammography, with a 71 percent to
100 percent accuracy, compared to 16 percent to 40 percent for mammography. For
high-risk women, many doctors now include MRI with mammography in a clinical
breast exam once a year.
"What we started to do at M. D. Anderson was to see if we could do mammography
and then six months later do a breast MRI exam, followed six months later with a
mammogram exam, and then six months after that with a breast MRI. That way the
women would receive an imaging modality screening every six months," Huong Le-Petross,
M.D., an assistant professor of diagnostic radiology at M.D. Anderson, was
quoted as saying.
Researchers say this alternating method detected nine cancers among a group of
study participants. Of these nine cancers, 55 percent were detected by MRI but
not by mammography, 33 percent were found by both MRI and mammography, and 11
percent was overlooked by both screening techniques. No cancer was found with
mammography alone.
"Mammography has always been the standard, and now we are challenging that gold
standard examination," Dr. Le-Petross said.
SOURCE: Presented at the Cancer Therapy and Research Center-American Association
for Cancer Research's Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio, Texas, Dec. 14,
2008
