From the July 2018 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Morris also believes that concerns over false positives are a holdover from earlier attempts at the application, which led to some recommendations for biopsies on benign masses.

“These days it doesn’t have that many false positives. It has a high detection rate, and when you do a biopsy, there's a high rate of positivity,” she said. “The problem, I think, is historical … that it got a reputation. But that’s not the breast MR of today.”


Since breast MR requires the use of the contrast agent gadolinium, which in some cases can cause adverse reactions and has come under new scrutiny as researchers investigate retention of the dye in the brain, some patients may be reluctant to undergo the exam.

“Surely no test in medicine is perfect, nor without risk,” said VCU Health’s Shah. “But for an otherwise healthy patient without kidney failure, or allergies to the dye, especially high-risk patients, the benefits of early breast cancer detection through MR are thought to outweigh the risks.”

Ultimately everyone seems to agree that these shortcomings pale in comparison to the value breast MR can bring to patients who need it most.

“On a regular basis, we find mammography-occult breast cancers in women at high lifetime risk undergoing screening MR,” said Lee, “These women likely benefit from earlier cancer detection at lower stages, and thus less aggressive treatment.”

Lining up the right patients with the right imaging modality can mean the difference between life and death. “Over 40,000 women die from breast cancer each year, and breast MR has the potential to find the most cancers when they are small and are highly treatable,” said Johns Hopkins’ Myers.

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