Breast MRI as the primary imaging modality in breast cancer screening (breast MRI screening)

The use of Breast MRI for screening. Purpose: We evaluated the efficiency of breast MRI for screening and compared the results to mammography. Is there any additional information concerning the outcome by using Mammography? Or is it possible to apply MRI only? Methods: We conducted a retrospective study on 789 asymptomatic women who had a normal life time risk for breast cancer. They underwent 1189 sceening MRIs during four years (2004-2008). The median age of women was 51 years. Additionally these women had mammography examinations. Diagnostic performance was compared between single individual modalities (MRI and Mammograhpy) and their combinations. Results: There were 789 asymptomatic women having a normal risk for breast cancer who underwent 1189 complete imaging rounds. The sensitivity of MRI (90,6 %) was significantly higher than that of mammography (56,3 %), specificity (97,6 % versus 98,4%) was similar. 15 out of 32 (46,9 %) carcinoma were only detected by MRI. Three of those were ductal carcinoma in situ [DCIS] and 12 of them were invasive. Mammography as a single method detected two DCIS and 1 invasive. There was no additional significant information by using mammography. Conclusion Due to the high sensitivity in detecting precursor and invasive carcinoma the breast MRI should be used for screening.2015-12-2