SENSITIVITY OF ENHANCED MRI FOR THE DETECTION OF BREAST-CANCER - NEW,MULTICENTRIC, RESIDUAL, AND RECURRENT

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast brings the advantages o f high resolution cross-sectional imaging to breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and research: improved cancer detection, staging, selection of therapy, evaluation of therapeutic response in vivo, detection of r ecurrence, and even the development of new therapies. Until now breast cancer treatment and research has been impeded by the limited means o f evaluating the breast cancer in vivo: primarily clinical palpation a nd mammography of the breast tumor. A review of the initial studies sh ows that with the use of paramagnetic contrast agents, MRI has a sensi tivity of 96 % for detecting breast cancers. MRT detects multicentric disease with a sensitivity of 98 %, superior to any other modality. Th e ability of MRI to detect recurrent local: breast cancer in the conse rvatively treated breast is nearly 100 %. MRI is capable of monitoring tumor response to chemotherapy and actually guiding therapeutic inter ventions such as interstitial laser photocoagulation.