Worldwide breast cancer rates are increasing each year and breast cancer continues to represent the most frequent type of cancer diagnosed in the female population [1]. Behind lung cancer, breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in Australian women and remains the leading cause of death in women aged 45 to 64 years [2].
The limitations of mammography, which has for many years been the primary imaging examination for breast cancer screening are now well recognised. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has been proven to offer substantially higher sensitivity and thus improves the diagnosis of breast cancer compared to mammography [3,4].
This study was a retrospective observational study of 200 asymptomatic patients at average to intermediate risk of breast cancer who completed an Abbreviated Breast MRI (AB-MR) examination.
Patient age, breast density, family history, follow-up investigations, tumour histology, receptor status (ER, PR and HER-2) and lymph node status were recorded.
Further imaging, core biopsy and/or surgical histopathology reports were collected for lesions reported as BIRADS 3 or above.
Inclusion criteria consisted of patients of any age, weight and height. The patients were asymptomatic with no known current breast cancer. Patients with an average to mildly elevated risk due to family history of breast or ovarian cancer, that did not meet Medicare criteria for high-risk screening MRI, were included. For those patients who were found to have breast cancer in the study, there must have been a surgical pathology report available for correlation.
Patients were excluded from the study if image acquisition errors occurred, including if subtraction errors due to patient motion, or if the MRI was performed for the analysis of breast implant integrity where contrast was given to exclude breast cancer as a secondary aim.
All studies were performed on a 3 Tesla MRI scanner using dedicated breast coils with patients in the prone position. 7.5ml of intravenous Gadobutrol 1mmol/ml was administered during the examination.
Participants were invited to complete a 6-question satisfaction survey on their AB-MR experience.