Scientists of UK had said in the journal The Lancet that for identifying the risk of breast cancer in women who have a history of breast cancer in their families, MRI scanning does score more than mammography.
Researchers feel that women who have a family history of breast cancer are predisposed to the disease genetically. These women will benefit from being screened for breast cancer from early adulthood. Screening young women for this purpose is done more accurately by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans as dense breast tissues reduce effects of mammography at this age.Researchers had studied 649 women in the age group of 35 to 49 years with a family history of breast cancer. They were tested for probability of incidence of BRCA1, BRCA2, or TP53 mutations that can lead to breast cancer. These women had undergone contrast enhanced MRI screenings and mammography for 2 to 7 years.
Results of such intense screenings showed that contrast enhanced MRI screenings are more sensitive for cancer detection. However, the research had also showed that a combination of MRI and mammography screenings done annually could detect most tumors for breast cancer.
