Dear MRI Insider,
Headlining this edition of the MRI Insider is research from the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle on the efficacy of MRI and breast cancer imaging.
Researchers found that the added cancer yield of MRI in a clinical population of women with a recent diagnosis of breast cancer is significantly higher than the added cancer yield in high-risk screening studies.
The study, co-authored by Dr. Constance Lehman, vice chair of radiology and head of breast imaging at the University of Washington School of Medicine, also noted a high positive predictive value for MRI, with 42% of women undergoing additional tissue sampling being diagnosed with cancer and 12% diagnosed with otherwise occult breast cancer. Click here to learn more about the results.
Also in this edition, staff editor Kate Madden Yee reports on a study from the University of California, San Francisco on the value of contrast-enhanced breast MRI as a tool for analyzing the microvasculature of breast tissue beyond the tumor margin and, therefore, improving local treatment options.
In other news and features, MRI procedure volume in the U.S. has slowed to single-digit rates in the last four years, compared with the double-digit growth rates the modality enjoyed before 2004. A new study from AuntMinnie.com's parent company, IMV Medical Information Division of Des Plaines, IL, calculated MRI's average annual growth rate at 3% since 2003. More details are available by clicking here.
Finally, a pilot study from Belgium is demonstrating the value of diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) for nodal staging in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Researchers noted that the superior results achieved with DW-MRI could significantly affect radiation therapy planning, especially when using newer conformal beam-shaping techniques.
Be sure to check AuntMinnie.com regularly in the days and weeks ahead as the latest news and research reports are posted in the MRI Digital Community.
