Pre-op MRI may improve breast cancer care for younger patients
New research supports the use of pre-operative MRI for patients undergoing surgery to cure breast cancer.
Published in RSNA’s Radiology, the new data indicate that women who undergo pre-op MRIs have better long-term outcomes. This is especially true for those under 50 at the time of diagnosis and treatment.
Although such scans are common practice, they are not currently a universal standard. Experts involved in this new analysis believe administering pre-op MRI to these patients could help radiologists forecast the future risk of recurrence, influencing decisions on how to best manage disease.
For their work, researchers retrospectively analyzed the cases of over 4,400 women 50 and younger who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Each underwent surgery, but not every patient had a pre-op MRI. Using follow-up data, the team compared outcomes, focusing on death and cancer recurrence among the two groups. Patients were followed for a median of nearly 8 years.
The majority of women (93%) underwent MRI prior to their surgery. Of the entire cohort, about 8% saw their cancer come back. Incidence of ipsilateral in-breast recurrence was around half of that observed in the non-MRI group (1.6% vs. 3.3%), though there were no notable differences in total recurrence rates.
A subanalysis on the impact of hormone receptor status indicated women diagnosed with hormone receptor–negative cancer benefited more from pre-op MRIs in comparison to those with receptor–positive diagnoses (8.2% recurrence vs. 20.7%). Overall survival rates between both groups did not differ significantly.
“Undergoing preoperative MRI was associated with reduced risk of ipsilateral in-breast recurrence in patients 50 years or younger with breast cancer, with the greatest benefit observed in those with hormone receptor–negative cancers,” Heera Yoen, MD, with the department of radiology at Seoul National University Hospital, and colleagues concluded.
The study abstract is available here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.