MRI is substantially more accurate than mammography in diagnosing the very early stages of breast cancer, according to a study published in The Lancet.

Researchers from the University of Bonn studied 7319 women examined with both mammography and MRI over five years. In a total of 167 women the doctors found early forms of breast cancer – 152 (92 %) of these were found using MRT, 93 (56%) with mammography.

Mammography highlights small calcifications which form in the milk ducts during ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) - calcifications that were previously believed to be invisible to MRT. This study found that by using mammography only 93 cases of DCIS could be seen, compared with 153 cases detected by MRT

“Our study demolishes a whole series of textbook dogmas. As our results show, the opposite is true. MRT is far more sensitive than mammography,” says radiologist Professor Christiane Kuhl, one of the researchers.

“The second prejudice is that MRT often leads to a ‘false positive’. Among our patients that was even less the case with MRI than with mammography.”

Despite the findings further training and experience is needed before MRT would be suitable as a mass screening tool says Kuhl:

 “Too little use is made of the method in the field of breast imaging, so correspondingly there are too few radiologists who have been able to gain sufficient experience with this specific application,” she says.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS014067360761232X/

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