ASO Author Reflections: Breast Cancer Detection of Baseline Screening MRI in High-Risk Women Who Are Not in the Highest Risk Groups

Excerpt

Women are understandably nervous about getting breast cancer. With one in eight women developing breast cancer in their lifetime, most women know at least one family member, friend, or colleague with this diagnosis. At the time of the annual screening mammogram, 50% are informed that they have dense breast tissue, resulting in reduced sensitivity of mammography. In addition, routine risk assessment questionnaires are increasingly offered by breast imaging centers, and approximately 16% are found to have elevated lifetime breast cancer risk using the Tyrer–Cuzick model or other models. Suddenly, a woman is told her risk of breast cancer is at least one in five, and she is fearful that this will not be detected by screening mammography. She looks to you for answers. What can you tell this high-risk woman, without a family history suggestive of a genetic mutation, about supplemental screening with breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)? This is the question we sought to answer in our article entitled “Baseline screening MRI uptake and findings in women with ≥ 20% lifetime risk of breast cancer”.1 …