A breast MRI scan is a useful tool for providing physicians with further information regarding a woman's breast health. MRI stands for magnetic resonance imaging, and produces high quality images of various internal structures of the body.
Who can Benefit from a Breast MRI Scan?
There are four groups of women that most benefit from a breast MRI scan:
1) Patients who are considered at high risk for developing breast cancer, due to a strong family history or because they have tested positive for the breast cancer gene. A breast MRI scan can be used as a complementary test with a mammogram for optimal results.
2) Women who have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. A breast MRI scan is extremely useful in determining the true extent of breast cancer: the size and location of the tumour, and whether or not there are additional tumours in the same breast or other breast.
3) Cancer patients who are receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy, which means chemotherapy given before surgery. The main benefit of neoadjuvant chemotherapy is that it may shrink larger cancers so that a women may undergo a lumpectomy, rather than a mastectomy. A breast MRI scan can be used to determine how effectively the chemotherapy is attacking the breast cancer.
4) Women with silicone breast implants that might have ruptured. If saline breast implants rupture, many women are immediately aware of a problem, as the contents usually leak quickly and the breast noticeably changes shape. However, if a silicone implant breaks, the contents leak much more slowly, and the rupture can go unnoticed for years. Silicone may stay within the area where scar tissue from the implants has built up, or it may leak to other parts of the body, where it can't be removed. A breast MRI scan provides excellent imaging of breast implants and can accurately detect a ruptured silicone implant.
Find out more about how the breast MRI machine works, and the benefits of breast MRI scans.