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Women monitored with magnetic resonance imaging following initial treatment for BRCA1 positive breast cancer enjoy a 3.5-fold lower risk of mortality compared with those not monitored with such imaging. This the conclusion of a multisite collaborative study by the Hereditary Breast Cancer Clinical Study Group.

The study reviewed the cases of 2488 women with a BRCA1 sequence variation breast cancer followed for up to 24 years. Of that number, 1756 women had at least 1 screening MR imaging exam and a mean number of 4.7 over their follow up period. The women in the MR group developed 241 recurrent cancers leading to 14 deaths or 5.8% mortality rate. Among the 732 women who did not receive MR surveillance, 103 breast cancers developed leading to 21 deaths with a mortality rate of 20.3% or 3.5 fold higher mortality rate.

This is the largest prospective study of MR imaging surveillance for breast cancer, but it does not specifically compare MR with other imaging such as mammography. Most of those women in the non-MR group did have mammography follow up.

MR has many advantages over mammography and ultrasound breast imaging. MR is painless, does not employ ionizing radiation, is highly sensitive, and can detect smaller cancers at earlier stage.. These study results demonstrate how this can translate into fewer deaths.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaoncology/fullarticle/2815702

#breast #cancer #BRCA1 #MR #magneticresonance #imaging #mortality

MR Imaging Saves Breast Cancer Patients

Dr. Howard Smith Reports