Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed in a study presented at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology to be better at detecting ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) than mammograms. MRI's were also shown to be very good at detecting high grade DCIS.
Women are recommended by the American Cancer Society to get an annual mammogram after the age of 40, do clinical breast exams starting in your 20's and if you are in a high risk group to receive annual screening with a breast MRI.
In a study among almost 6,000 women who were screened with both MRI and mammography, MRI detected 92 percent of DCIS cases where mammography only detected 56 percent of cases diagnosed.
It was also stated in the study that the MRI's were performed at a center with extensive experience in this area of screening. This might not prove to perform as well in other settings. Also, MRI's are more expensive and more likely to produce false-positive test results.
As a breast cancer survivor I use mammography and breast MRI's to monitor for a recurrence. I feel that in utilizing both screening methods that one method might catch something if the other one does not.
