Click on any image below to see an enlargement of that image.

Case 1:
(A) 61 year old woman with normal post-op mammogram.	(B) MRI shows 5mm invasive ductal carcinoma.
Case 2:
(A) 45 year old woman with cancer in right breast. Left breast mammogram is normal.	(B) MRI demonstrates cancer in right breast but surprisingly reveals an occult cancer in left breast.
Case 3: 52 year old woman with negative mammogram. MRI reveals an occult carcinoma.	Case 4: 49 year old woman with negative mammogram. MRI reveals an occult carcinoma.
Case 5: 43 year old woman with negative mammogram. MRI reveals occult carcinoma.	Case 6: 46 year old woman with negative mammogram. MRI reveals occult carcinoma.
Case 7: 46 year old woman with known cancer in right breast. MRI reveals a mammographically occult cancer in the left breast.

Above images are all original MR scans performed at Parkside MR Center.

Discussion

Breast MRI is primarily suggested for women who have abnormal or problem mammograms. In these patients the information obtained from Breast MRI helps to direct radiologists and surgeons to sites for needle or surgical biopsy. Supplementing routine mammography and ultrasound with MRI has yielded a higher rate of detection of primary breast cancers. It also resulted in an increased rate of detection of multifocal breast cancer and has been helpful in assessing possible malignant lymph nodes as well.

In the cases presented in this UPDATE, MRI was performed to evaluate a focal mammographic abnormality and, in several cases, detected an unsuspected lesion in the same or opposite breast. MRI also found malignancies in patients with multiple risk factors for breast cancer and who had normal mammograms.

Because suspicious lesions are sometimes found on MRI which cannot retrospectively be detected on mammography, a need has arisen to localize these lesions using MRI so that biopsy may be performed. Physicians at Parkside MR Center have developed such techniques using a three-dimensional imaging system and non-ferromagnetic needles. More information about the capabilities of performing these and other MRI-guided interventions will be featured in a future UPDATE.

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