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HOT
SPRINGS, Va. (UPI) -- Breast magnetic resonance imaging provides diagnostic
information for some 20 percent of women with breast cancer, U.S. researchers
said.
University of Florida surgeons said that MRI, which is not routinely
administered to the breast cancer patients, can find additional cancerous areas in
the breast that previously evaded detection, discover cancer in the opposite
breast that standard imaging tests such as mammography and ultrasound missed, or
determine a tumor is actually larger than expected.
Dr. Stephen R. Grobmyer
said that MRI can help confirm which women are candidates for a breast-sparing
operation or more aggressive surgery.
The surgeons did a retrospective
review of 79 women ages 29 to 82, who had localized noninvasive or early-stage
invasive breast cancer and were planning to have a lumpectomy. Twenty one patients
underwent an MRI-guided biopsy after preoperative breast MRI revealed a suspicious
area. About 40 percent of the biopsies revealed additional cancer and the MRI led
to a change in treatment plan in 19 percent of the study sample.
The
findings were presented at the Southern Surgical Association's 119th annual
meeting in Hot Springs, Va.
Copyright
2007 by United Press International
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