Breast Imaging Techniques May Enhance Cancer Detection

WEDNESDAY, May 26 (HealthDay News) -- Contrast-enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging can detect malignancy in probably benign lesions in the accepted range for mammographically detected Breast Imaging and Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) category 3 lesions, and mammographic digital screening offers the potential to increase the rate of invasive cancers detected on the basis of calcifications, according to two studies published in the June issue of Radiology.

Susan P. Weinstein, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center in Philadelphia, and colleagues conducted a prospective multi-institutional magnetic resonance imaging screening trial of the contralateral breast in 969 breast cancer patients. They identified 145 BI-RADS category 3 lesions in 106 patients, and found that the malignancy rate of 0.9 percent was in line with the malignancy rate of less than 2 percent consistently found in mammographic BI-RADS category 3 lesions.

Stefanie Weigel, M.D., of University Hospital Muenster in Germany, and colleagues correlated prospectively documented radiologic cancer features with pathologic characteristics in 241 breast malignancies diagnosed in 24,067 women using population-based digital mammographic screening. They found that the calcification-specific relative risk was 1.7 percent, the calcification-specific detection rate for invasive cancer was 0.12 percent, and the positive predictive value for recall was 7 percent. They also found that 38 percent of all malignancies detected on the basis of calcification were invasive.

"Compared with published results of analog screening, digital screening offers the potential to increase the rate of invasive cancers detected on the basis of calcifications in population-based mammographic screening," Weigel and colleagues conclude.

Abstract - Weinstein
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)
Abstract - Weigel
Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)