The Impact of Preoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Detecting Additional Disease in Breast Cancer Patients.

In newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, it has been shown that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) detects additional cancer not found on mammography and thus is useful to map out the extent of disease in the affected breast.1 Others have shown MRI valuable in detecting occult disease in the contralateral breast.2 More recently, it has been reported that MRI is suitable for guiding surgical decisions, especially in younger women with lobular cancer and/ or increased breast density.3 Consequently, MRI is increasingly being used for clinical staging of breast cancer and is currently supported by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) to define the extent and/or multifocality of cancer in the ipsilateral breast, and to screen the contralateral breast at the time of initial diagnosis.4.