Detecting Breast Cancer With MRI

For women at high risk of breast cancer, watching and waiting to see what develops can be stressful.

Now, The Early Show medical correspondent Emily Senay reports, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is providing some added peace of mind with the ability to spot some cancers that a regular mammogram might miss.

Maria White's family history of breast cancer was enough motivation for a yearly trip to the doctor to get screened.

"All I have to do is look at my family," says White. "My mom has it, my aunt has it, my cousin has it. I feel like I am at high risk."

Along with a regular mammogram and an ultrasound scan, she also gets an MRI. Recently, she went back for another visit because a previous MRI revealed something suspicious and worth watching.

"There was something tiny there that the doctor wanted to check again," says White. "The mammogram was clear, the ultrasound was clear, so the whole idea is to pick up whatever it is as soon as possible before it spreads to the lymph nodes — hopefully before you need further treatment."

Although White's results aren't known yet, Dr. Elizabeth Morris of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York has studied many other cases where an MRI has spotted trouble that mammograms missed.

"Not only did a MRI detect breast cancer that was not detected on mammography, but it was early stage breast cancer," Dr. Morris says. "I think that it's very encouraging for women who are at high risk because it gives them an additional [weapon] where breast cancer can be detected early and treated early."

However, he says, MRI is not tested to replace mammography. It is another test for women at high risk of cancer can use.

"The MRI picked up something that neither the ultrasound nor mammogram picked up," says White. "I will always want my MRI now. That MRI is going to pick up whatever it is, early. So it's priceless for me."

Dr. Senay says, although successful in some cases, MRI may not be a routine testing procedure for women in the future because it is costly. And it can produce too many false-positive results. In those cases, something suspicious turns out to be benign, but still requires an invasive and unnecessary biopsy procedure to diagnose it.