MR finds contralateral breast cancer in elders

MRI detects breast cancer in the contralateral breast for postmenopausal women better than a clinical or mammographic examination, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in the March/April The Breast Journal.

The researchers found 16 of 425 women, all postmenopausal, had breast cancer in the undiagnosed breast. Furthermore, patients 70 and older had a higher prevalence of cancer detected in the second breast than their younger counterparts. MRI found a cancer in seven of the 129 women 70 and older. Mammography and clinical examination did not detect cancer in any of the contralateral breasts.

“Elderly women in good health potentially benefit from earlier detection, and we believe that screening the undiagnosed breast with MRI should be considered in all postmenopausal women diagnosed with a breast cancer,” said lead investigator Dr. Johnny Ray Bernard Jr., a radiation oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL.