DYNAMIC CONTRAST-ENHANCED AND FAT-SUPPRESSED MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING IN SUSPECTED RECURRENT CARCINOMA OF THE BREAST - PRELIMINARY EXPERIENCE

20 women with suspected recurrent breast cancer who had undergone prev ious breast-conserving operations were investigated using dynamic cont rast-enhanced gradient echo (GRE) and fat suppressed spin echo (SE) ma gnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Histologically confirmed recurrent tumo ur was readily recognized on dynamic GRE scans by virtue of rapid, ear ly and avid enhancement, Benign scars enhanced more slowly and reached lower magnitudes of enhancement. Fat suppressed SE images, which were typically acquired 10 min after contrast administration, were sensiti ve for the detection of tumour recurrence but lacked specificity. Earl y scanning after contrast administration offers the best prospects for distinguishing tumour recurrence from benign scarring. The criteria u sed to distinguish these two entities are highly dependent on the scan technique and the time at which images are obtained post-contrast.