Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer Offered Breast MRI Study

For Immediate Release
Deborah Pettibone
(716) 845-8593
[email protected]

WOMEN AT HIGH RISK FOR BREAST CANCER OFFERED BREAST MRI STUDY AT ROSWELL PARK CANCER INSTITUTE

BUFFALO, NY -- Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), a member of the 13 member International Breast MRI Consortium, is participating in a pilot study to investigate the value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the detection of breast cancer in women who are at high risk for the disease. The Consortium received a $6 million National Cancer Institute grant for breast MRI clinical trials.

An estimated 175,000 new cases of breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed among women in the United States during 1999. Routine screening mammography has been shown to decrease breast cancer mortality in women age 40 and older. However, approximately 5-15 percent of breast cancers are not detected on mammograms and often present at more clinically advanced stages.

This study will help determine if MRI screening may be effective and complementary to conventional breast cancer screening (annual mammography and physical examination) for women who are at a 30 percent or greater lifetime risk for developing breast cancer. If the MRI does detect any suspicious area, participants may undergo MRI guided surgical biopsy to determine whether the finding is malignant or benign.

Women at high risk tend to develop breast cancer at younger ages and may benefit from additional screening techniques. Mammography, the current standard screening tool for breast cancer, has a decreased ability to demonstrate cancer in mammographically dense breasts, one of the causes of false-negative mammograms. MRI has detected cancers not evident on mammography and physical exam.

Paul C. Stomper, MD, director of the Mammography Center and his colleagues at RPCI have published the results of several pilot studies on the development of clinical breast MRI during the last decade. "Breast MRI has been especially helpful in finding further extent or additional cancers during the staging of women with newly diagnosed breast cancer whose cancers are not seen or poorly visualized on dense mammograms," said Dr. Stomper. "This multicenter trial may provide clinical data to move forward with the use of breast MRI to complement mammography in certain situations, and to continue to improve upon the early detection rate and, hopefully, high cure rates for breast cancer."

Women 25 years and older of all races and ethnic backgrounds are invited to participate in the study. To be considered eligible for the study, women must first be seen in the High Risk Breast Evaluation Clinic at RPCI and determined to have a lifetime

risk for developing breast cancer that is greater than or equal to 30 percent. An example of a history that may meet this eligibility is having two or more close relatives with breast cancer from the same side of the family. Study participants will receive free breast MRI exams for two consecutive years.
For more information about the study, call 1-800-ROSWELL.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute, founded in 1898, is the nation's first and one of its largest cancer research, treatment and education centers, and is the only National Cancer Institute-designed comprehensive cancer center in Western New York.

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