MRI-PET imaging combination could cut unnecessary breast biopsies by half

CANCER DIGEST – June 24, 2014 – A new technique using four imaging approaches, was 96 percent accurate in distinguishing malignant breast tumors from those that were benign, and provided better results than combinations of two or three imaging approaches. The researchers at the Medical University of Vienna in Austria reported their study results in the June 2014 Clinical Cancer Research. They estimated that this technique could reduce unnecessary breast biopsies recommended by the commonly used imaging method, dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI), by 50 percent. Pinker and colleagues recruited 76 patients to the study who had suspicious or inconclusive findings from a mammography or a breast ultrasonography. They performed a multi-parameter imaging using MRI and contrast dye that shows tumor activity along with a PET scan on all the patients. In addition, they used three other methods. All results were compared with microscopic exam of the tumors to evaluate which imaging combination was most efficient in making an accurate diagnosis. Of the 76 tumors, 53 were malignant and 23 were benign, based on histopathology. The method called  MP 18FDG PET-MRI was the most accurate.

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