STAGING OF SUSPECTED BREAST-CANCER - EFFECT OF MR-IMAGING AND MR-GUIDED BIOPSY

PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of contrast material-enhanced magne tic resonance (MR) imaging on staging of breast cancer in patients wit h mammographically or clinically suspected tumor. MATERIALS AND METHOD S: One hundred seventy-six patients underwent breast MR imaging at 1.5 T before excisional biopsy of a suspicious mammographic or palpable a bnormality. Diagnostic imaging studies in patients with biopsy-proved or presumed breast carcinoma were reviewed. RESULTS: Sixty-four patien ts met the study criteria. MR imaging enabled detection of all 57 inva sive breast cancers and nine of 15 in situ cancers. In 22 patients (34 %), MR imaging depicted one or more cancers not visible at mammography , 13 (20%) of which were unsuspected multifocal or diffuse disease. As a result of the increased sensitivity of MR imaging compared with tha t of mammography, clinical staging and subsequent treatment were alter ed in seven patients (11%). CONCLUSION: MR imaging allows detection of mammographically and clinically occult foci of carcinoma in patients with suspected breast cancer.