MRI ‘the most effective means of diagnosing breast cancer’

A new study has indicated that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is considerably better than other imaging methods in terms of reliably diagnosing breast cancer.

The Medical University of Vienna research involved a total of 1,365 screening examinations carried out on 559 women deemed to be at increased risk of breast cancer. It was found that around 90 percent of cases could be definitively diagnosed using MRI.

A combination of MRI and mammography increased the detection rate by just five per cent, while none of the cancers were detected by ultrasound alone. Meanwhile, using mammography and ultrasound together yielded a detection rate of only 37.5 percent.

These results were similar when considering non-invasive cancers and benign breast lesions.

Study leader Thomas Helbich said: "It is our duty to make women more aware of the fact that the use of mammography and ultrasound cannot detect all types of cancer. MRI really is the method to be recommended."

In 2011, just under 50,000 UK women were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, making it the most common cancer type in the country.