Contact:
Michael J. Bernstein
(703) 648-8910
[email protected]
For Release: April 20, 1998
New Use for MRI Helps Determine if Breast Cancer has Spread
Rapid magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can effectively determine whether breast cancer has spread to other parts of the body, a Yale University study has found. The results of the pilot study were presented at the American College of Radiology's 28th National Conference on Breast Cancer, held in Washington, DC. April 18-21.
The technique, called total body echoplanar MRI, images the patient from head to toe in six minutes, according to Dr. Laura Horvath, study author and assistant professor of diagnostic radiology at Yale University School of Medicine. Conventional MRI is like a time exposure photograph, she said. On the other hand, echoplanar MRI can be compared to an instant snapshot. Scans of the whole body have been obtained in as little as 18 seconds, Dr. Horvath said.
When a patient is diagnosed with breast cancer, doctors must find out if the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. This process is known as staging. Currently, staging requires several tests and may take several days, Dr. Horvath said. Rapid total body echoplanar MRI could combine all those tests into one cost-effective alternative, taking only 45 minutes.
The technique is particularly useful in detecting bone marrow abnormalities, Dr. Horvath said. "In some cases, MRI can detect bone disease where a bone scan or CT cannot." This is important for patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer, she added.
In many cases, breast cancer will spread first to the bones, liver or lungs, she said, so these are the areas that physicians need to examine most closely.
The cancer's stage drastically affects the patient's chances for survival and the selection of treatment options, Dr. Horvath said. For example, a patient whose cancer has not spread beyond the breast might chose to have a lumpectomy followed by radiation therapy. A patient whose breast cancer has spread to other parts of the body would be treated with chemotherapy or hormone therapy.
Rapid total body echoplanar MRI is a painless procedure that takes less than an hour to perform, according to Dr. Horvath. The patient lies on a table and is then moved rapidly through the MRI unit, which is basically a large magnet. This is different from conventional MRI, where the patient would stays in one position during the procedure.
In addition, conventional MRI focuses on one part of the body, such as the liver. Rapid total body echoplanar MRI focuses on the entire body. "That's what is so exciting about this," Dr. Horvath said, "There has never been a way to look at the whole body with this level of detail before. We can get new and important information, using this procedure."
There are some patients who should not have any kind of MRI examination, because of the machine's magnet. These patients include those dependent upon cardiac pacemakers, those with metallic foreign bodies in or around the eye, heart valves that contain metallic elements, and those with metallic clips previously placed to stop or prevent bleeding into the brain.
The American College of Radiology is a major medical association with over 38,000 members worldwide. The membership includes diagnostic radiologists, radiation oncologists and medical physicists.
###
RSS