MRI finds invasive breast cancer early in female survivors of childhood Hodgkin's lymphoma, according to a new study published in Cancer.
These patients are at increased risk for breast cancer because they received chest radiation, noted principal investigator Dr. David Hodgson from Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto. Guidelines recommend breast MRI screening from the age of 25 years, or eight years following chest radiation, whichever is later.
For the study, Hodgson and colleagues collaborated with researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Ninety-six women received 274 breast MRI scans between 2005 and 2012. Ten breast cancers -- half of which were invasive tumors -- were discovered in nine women. The median age at breast cancer diagnosis was 39 years, and the median latency period between Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis and age at breast cancer diagnosis was 21 years (Cancer, May 28, 2014).
Of the 10 detected breast tumors, five were visible on both MRI and mammography, three were visible only on MRI, and two were detected on mammography alone (but were noninvasive), according to the authors. The median size of the invasive tumors was 8 mm, and none had spread to the lymph nodes.
"This illustrates the young age at which these cancers can occur," Hodgson said in a statement released by University Health Network. "For some of these women, if they had been screened starting at age 40 or 50 like average-risk women, it would have been too late."
