Featuring Dr. Ian Gardiner, MD, FRCPC, Radiologist

Duration: 1 minute

A breast MRI is a specialized tool that we use to look inside the breast to see if there are any signs of an early small cancer.

It uses a different kind of technology than we use with mammography, which is radiation, or with ultrasound, in which a very high pitched sound wave goes into the tissue and the echo is returned and interpreted by the computer.

In breast MRI what we do is we use the combo of a very powerful magnet and FM radio waves to create a detailed three dimensional image of the breast tissue. It gives us both anatomic detail and unlike our other tools it also gives us physiological data that we can use to help us decide whether or not cancer is present or not.