Magnetic resonance imaging in breast cancer: A literature review and future perspectives.
Early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer are essential for successful treatment. Currently mammography and ultrasound are the basic imaging techniques for the detection and localization of breast tumors. The low sensitivity and specificity of these imaging tools resulted in a demand for new imaging modalities and breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has become increasingly important in the detection and delineation of breast cancer in daily practice. However, the clinical benefits of the use of pre-operative MRI in women with newly diagnosed breast cancer is still a matter of debate. The main additional diagnostic value of MRI relies on specific situations such as detecting multifocal, multicentric or contralateral disease unrecognized on conventional assessment (particularly in patients diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma), assessing the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, detection of cancer in dense breast tissue, recognition of an occult primary breast cancer in patients presenting with cancer metastasis in axillary lymph nodes, among others. Nevertheless, the development of new MRI technologies such as diffusion-weighted imaging, proton spectroscopy and higher field strength 7.0 T imaging offer a new perspective in providing additional information in breast abnormalities. We conducted an expert literature review on the value of breast MRI in diagnosing and staging breast cancer, as well as the future potentials of new MRI technologies.
Gisela LG Menezes, Floor M Knuttel, Bertine L Stehouwer, Ruud M Pijnappel, Maurice AAJ van den Bosch, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Centre Utrecht, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Gisela Lg
GL
Menezes
Gisela LG Menezes, Floor M Knuttel, Bertine L Stehouwer, Ruud M Pijnappel, Maurice AAJ van den Bosch, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Centre Utrecht, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Floor M
FM
Knuttel
Gisela LG Menezes, Floor M Knuttel, Bertine L Stehouwer, Ruud M Pijnappel, Maurice AAJ van den Bosch, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Centre Utrecht, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Bertine L
BL
Stehouwer
Gisela LG Menezes, Floor M Knuttel, Bertine L Stehouwer, Ruud M Pijnappel, Maurice AAJ van den Bosch, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Centre Utrecht, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Ruud M
RM
Pijnappel
Gisela LG Menezes, Floor M Knuttel, Bertine L Stehouwer, Ruud M Pijnappel, Maurice AAJ van den Bosch, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Centre Utrecht, 3508 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Maurice Aaj
MA
van den Bosch
7.0 Tesla; Breast magnetic resonance imaging; Cancer; Diffusion-weighted imaging; Spectroscopy