Oncologist slams breast MR with old data

Oncologist slams breast MR with old data
For the third time in less than a year, results from a retrospective study of breast cancer cases were framed as new research, challenging the routine use of MRI as a means to improve surgical outcomes in newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. The results, announced in press releases in September 2008, June 2009, and last week, are all the same and lead to the same conclusions: newly diagnosed breast cancer who receive a breast MRI are more likely to receive a mastectomy after their diagnosis and may face delays in starting treatment. The news hook for the first press release was the 2008 ASCO Breast Cancer Symposium; for the second, online publication of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons; for the third, actual print publication in the August edition of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. In each, Dr. Richard J. Bleicher, a surgical oncologist and attending surgeon at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, is quoted extensively. Dr. Bleicher could not be immediately reached for comment.