PITTSBURGH, Pa. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — Last year in the United States, 40 thousand women died from breast cancer, despite having access to mammography. It’s an important tool for catching cancer but, for women with dense breasts tissue, researchers say there may be a better way.
For decades, a mammogram has been a once-a-year potentially life-saving screening for women over forty. But the imaging has its drawbacks.
Margarita Zuley MD, Chief of Breast Imaging at UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital says, “The tissues are overlapping, they’re superimposed. So, it’s sort of like trying to read a book through the cover without ever opening the book and look at each page.
For women with dense breast tissue, screening is even trickier. Women with dense breasts have less fatty tissue. This is what a dense breast image looks like. Researchers are now looking at the benefit of using an abbreviated MRI.
Doctor Zuley says, “An MRI uses an injected contrast called gadolinium, which goes where blood flow goes. And so, it lets us see the function of the breast. The blood flows through cancers differently than it does through normal tissue. It goes, there’s more blood flow to it, and, and it goes through at a faster rate.
A recent study found women with dense breasts who had an average risk of breast cancer benefited from the abbreviated MRI screening. The MRI detected two and a half times as many breast cancers as the next best thing, 3D mammography.
Doctor Zuley says doctors may begin to look more at a patient’s personal history and cancer risk when determining which option may be best.
Doctor Zuley says, “I think we’re moving away from the anatomic era of one size fits all in breast screening towards a more personalized approach.”
The abbreviated MRI breast screening takes about 10 minutes as compared to traditional mammography which takes about five minutes … But patients do need time to have the contrasting agent administered. Most private insurance plans that cover mammography also pay for MRI screening if a woman is high risk.
Contributors to this news report include: Cyndy McGrath, Producer; Roque Correa, Editor.
Sources:
SCREENING FOR DENSE BREASTS: ONE SIZE DOESN’T FIT ALL
REPORT #3081
BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is cancer that forms in the cells of the breasts. After skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed in women in the United States. About 1 in 8 of U.S. women are going to develop invasive breast cancer in the course of their life. Dense breast tissue refers to the appearance of breast tissue on a mammogram. It’s a normal and common finding. On a mammogram, non-dense breast tissue appears dark and transparent. Dense breast tissue appears as a solid white area on a mammogram, which makes it difficult to see through.
(Sources: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/breast-cancer/symptoms-causes/syc-20352470
DIAGNOSIS: The radiologist who analyzes your mammogram determines the ratio of non-dense tissue to dense tissue and assigns a level of breast density. On a mammography report, breast density is assigned to one of the following four categories: (1) the breasts are almost entirely fatty (about 10% of women), (2) a few areas of dense tissue are scattered through the breasts (about 40% of women), (3) the breasts are evenly dense throughout (about 40% of women), and (4) the breasts are extremely dense (about 10% of women). Despite concerns about detecting cancer in dense breasts, mammograms are still effective screening tools. The most common type of mammogram — digital mammogram — saves images of your breasts as digital files instead of film and allows for more detailed analysis. This is more effective at finding cancer in dense breast tissue than older film mammogram technology.
NEW REGULATIONS: “AB-MRI,” also called abbreviated MRI or fast MRI, is a shortened version of breast MRI that is designed to screen for additional breast cancers not seen on mammography. Breast MRI has the highest cancer detection rate (CDR) of all breast imaging exams across all breast density categories. Traditionally, breast MRI has been reserved for high-risk women due to the cost, length of exam and availability of interpretation time. AB-MRI imaging requires intravenous contrast administration and lasts 10-15 minutes. There is no radiation exposure or breast compression. It is not currently covered by insurance companies and is an out-of-pocket expense for the patient. Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fl offers AB-MRI imaging for $500.
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Cyndy Patton
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