Dear MRI Insider,
This issue of the MRI Insider offers an exclusive first look at a new study by German researchers: They found that MRI screening can help detect breast cancer in women who are at average risk of developing the disease and who have no personal or family history of breast cancer.
MRI's detection rate was 5.4 cancers per 1,000 women who were asymptomatic for breast cancer in the study from the University of Aachen. Lead author Dr. Simone Schrading presented the results at the recent RSNA meeting. Get more details by clicking here.
In more breast MRI news, a recent study concluded that dual-energy contrast-enhanced full-field digital mammography finds additional cancers in the breast with better specificity than MRI. The findings from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center suggest that contrast mammography could be a feasible alternative to more expensive breast MRI scans.
Moving on to other MRI areas, researchers from Duke University Medical Center have found that the combination of 1.5-tesla MRI, FDG-PET, and cerebrospinal fluid data when added to routine clinical tests significantly increases the ability to predict whether people with mild cognitive impairment will progress to Alzheimer's disease.
Two new studies have also shown promising results for PET/MRI. Preliminary research suggests that carbon-11 choline PET/MRI could provide an alternative to PET/CT for restaging prostate cancer by offering equal -- if not better -- diagnostic performance with less radiation exposure. In a comparison of the two modalities, choline-PET/MRI detected more suspicious lesions among recurrent prostate cancer patients than PET/CT.
PET/MRI could also help patients with gynecological malignancies, potentially reducing scan time and radiation exposure. A prospective study found similar results in a comparison of PET/MRI and PET/CT in terms of maximum standardized uptake values, metabolic tumor volume, and identifying disease location.
Everyone at AuntMinnie.com would like to wish our loyal readers a very healthy and prosperous 2013. Remember to stay in touch with the MRI Digital Community in the coming year for the latest news and precedent-setting research.
