Effect of breast magnetic resonance imaging on the clinical management of women with early-stage breast carcinoma.

PURPOSE To determine the impact of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on the clinical management of patients with early-stage breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS A review was performed of the records of 207 women with early-stage breast cancer (including five women with bilateral disease) who underwent breast MRI during work-up for breast conservation treatment. All patients presented with clinical stage 0, I, or II disease. For each patient, a determination was made whether the breast MRI affected the clinical management, and if so, whether the patient was well served by the change in management. RESULTS The MRI findings affected the clinical management in 43 cases (20% of 212 breast cancers). Based on the pathology findings and the overall clinical course for each case, the breast MRI was judged to have had a strongly favorable effect on management in 18 cases (8%), a somewhat favorable effect in six cases (3%), an uncertain effect in five cases (2%), a somewhat unfavorable effect in 11 cases (5%), and a strongly unfavorable effect in three cases (1%). The effect of MRI was not significantly different for invasive carcinoma compared with ductal carcinoma-in-situ (all P > or =.27). However, the effect of MRI was significantly greater when the MRI was performed before an excisional biopsy (P =.0011) or for larger tumors (P =.0089). CONCLUSIONS Breast MRI alters the clinical management for a sizable fraction of women with early-stage breast cancer and appears to offer clinically useful information for determining optimal local treatment.

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