PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

2 studies on the use of breast MRI

2013-11-19
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Rebecca Hughes
hughes.r@ghc.org
206-287-2055
The JAMA Network Journals
2 studies on the use of breast MRI CHICAGO – The overall use of breast magnetic resonance imaging has increased, with the procedure most commonly used for diagnostic evaluations and screenings, according to a study published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.

While breast MRI is being used increasingly, its sensitivity leads to higher false-positive rates and it is also more expensive. Guidelines from the American Cancer Society (ACS) indicate that breast MRI should be used to screen asymptomatic women at high-risk for breast cancer if they are known carriers of the BRCA gene mutation; first-degree relatives of a known BRCA gene mutation carrier who are themselves untested; or a women with more than a 20 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer, according to the study background.

Karen J. Wernli, Ph.D., of the Group Health Research Institute, Seattle, and colleagues examined the patterns of breast MRI in U.S. community practice from 2005 through 2009 with data collected from five national Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium registries.

Study results show the overall rate of breast MRI nearly tripled from 4.2 to 11.5 examinations per 1,000 women from 2005 through 2009. The procedure was most commonly used for diagnostic evaluation (40.3 percent), followed by screening (31.7 percent). Women who underwent screening breast MRI were more likely to be younger than 50 years old, white, nulliparous (never had a baby), have a personal history of breast cancer, a family history of breast cancer and extremely dense breast tissue.

Study findings also indicate that the proportion of women screened with breast MRI at high lifetime risk for breast cancer increased from 9 percent in 2005 to 29 percent in 2009. The researchers also note that during the study period, the most common use of breast MRI was for diagnostic evaluation of a non-MRI finding.

"Our findings suggest that there have been improvements in appropriate use of breast MRI, with a smaller proportion of examinations performed for further evaluation of abnormal mammogram results and symptomatic patients, and more breast MRI performed for screening of women at high risk," the authors conclude. (JAMA Intern Med. Published online November 18, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.11963. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)

Editor's Note: Authors made conflict of interest disclosures. This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Breast MRI Use Increased Then Stabilized Over Past Decade

The use of breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) increased in the decade after 2001 before eventually stabilizing, especially for screening and surveillance of women with a family or personal history of breast cancer, according to a study by Natasha K. Stout, Ph.D., of the Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, and colleagues.

Although breast MRI is more sensitive than mammography in detecting breast cancer, cost and little evidence regarding the mortality benefits have limited recommendations for its use, the study background notes.

Between 2000 and 2001, researchers studied 10,518 women (ages 20 and older) who were enrolled in a health plan for at least one year and had at least one breast MRI at a multispecialty group medical practice in New England. Breast MRI counts and breast cancer risk status, as well as the reason for testing (screening, diagnostic evaluation, staging or treatment, or surveillance) were obtained.

According to study results, breast MRI increased from 2000 (6.5 examinations per 10,000 women) to 2009 (130.7 exams per 10,000 women), with the greatest increase in use for screening and surveillance. By 2011, use declined then stabilized (104.8 exams per 10,000 women). Screening and surveillance accounted for 57.6 percent of MRI use by 2011. Of the women, 30.1 percent had a claims-document personal history, 51.7 percent a family history of breast cancer, and 3.5 percent of women had a documented genetic mutation.

Researchers noted that in a subset of women with electronic medical records who received screening or surveillance MRIs, only 21 percent had evidence of meeting American Cancer Society criteria for breast MRI. Only 48.4 percent of women with documented genetic mutations received breast MRI screening.

"Understanding who is receiving breast MRI and the downstream consequences of this use should be a high research priority to ensure that the limited health care funds available are used to wisely maximize population health," the authors conclude.

(JAMA Intern Med. Published online November 18, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.11958. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)

Editor's Note: This study was funded by grants from the American Cancer Society and the National Institutes of Health. Please see article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

Commentary: Patterns of Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging use In a related commentary, E. Shelley Hwang, M.D., M.P.H., of the Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C., and Isabelle Bedrosian, M.D., of the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, write: "In an era of ever-increasing focus on cost containment in health care, the value of MRI is clearly an issue of concern."

"What is striking in both studies by Wernli et al and Stout et al was that breast MRI was both overused in women not meeting guideline criteria and underused in those who could derive greatest benefit," they continue.

"As a medical community, we bear a collective responsibility to ensure that breast MRI provides sufficient clinical benefit to warrant the additional biopsies, increased patient anxiety and cost that accrue with its use," they conclude. (JAMA Intern Med. Published online November 18, 2013. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.10502. Available pre-embargo to the media at http://media.jamanetwork.com.)

Editor's Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.

### Media Advisory: To contact author Karen J. Wernli, Ph.D., call Rebecca Hughes at 206-287-2055 or email hughes.r@ghc.org. To contact author Natasha K. Stout, Ph.D., call Mary Wallan at 617-509-2419. or email mary_wallan@harvardpilgrim.org. To contact commentary author E. Shelley Hwang, M.D., M.P.H., call Rachel Harrison at 919-419-5069 or email rachel.harrison@duke.edu.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Beta-blockers before surgery appear associated with lower risk of heart-related events

2013-11-19
Beta-blockers before surgery appear associated with lower risk of heart-related events Giving beta-blocker medication to patients with heart disease undergoing noncardiac surgery appears to be associated with a lower risk of death and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) ...

Poorer, rural counties have lower CPR training rates

2013-11-19
Poorer, rural counties have lower CPR training rates Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training appears to be lower in more rural counties, those with higher proportions of black and Hispanic residents and lower household incomes, and in the South, Midwest ...

Drinking more milk as a teenager does not lower risk of hip fracture later

2013-11-19
Drinking more milk as a teenager does not lower risk of hip fracture later Drinking more milk as a teenager apparently does not lower the risk of hip fracture as an older adult and instead appears to increase that risk for men, according to a study published by ...

Preterm birth risk increases for pregnant women exposed to phthalates

2013-11-19
Preterm birth risk increases for pregnant women exposed to phthalates The odds of preterm delivery appear to increase for pregnant women exposed to phthalates, chemicals people are exposed to through contaminated food and water and in a variety of products ...

Gene plays major role in suppressing cancer

2013-11-19
Gene plays major role in suppressing cancer Adelaide researchers have found that a specific gene plays an important role in suppressing lymphoma, a type of blood cell cancer. The caspase-2 gene is related to a family of proteins that are essential for ...

Tackling early socioeconomic inequality as important as encouraging smoking cessation

2013-11-19
Tackling early socioeconomic inequality as important as encouraging smoking cessation Although health behaviours such as smoking are directly linked to the majority of early deaths in the UK, tackling these individual factors fails to address the underlying ...

Bacteria recycle broken DNA

2013-11-19
Bacteria recycle broken DNA Bacteria recycle broken DNA that bacteria can take up small as well as large pieces of old DNA from this scrapheap and include it in their own genome. This discovery may have major consequences – both in connection ...

A vexing math problem finds an elegant solution

2013-11-19
A vexing math problem finds an elegant solution ITHACA, N.Y. – A famous math problem that has vexed mathematicians for decades has met an elegant solution by Cornell University researchers. Graduate student Yash Lodha, working with Justin Moore, professor of mathematics, ...

Modeling of internal friction adds new wrinkle to realistic simulation of cloth behavior

2013-11-19
Modeling of internal friction adds new wrinkle to realistic simulation of cloth behavior Disney Researchers lead international collaboration Most people try to keep clothing wrinkle free, but computer graphic artists, striving for realism in computer simulations, take ...

Men with prostate cancer who ate a low-fat fish oil diet showed changes in their cancer tissue

2013-11-19
Men with prostate cancer who ate a low-fat fish oil diet showed changes in their cancer tissue For prostate cancer patients, it's a case of you are what you eat Men with prostate cancer who ate a low-fat diet and took fish oil supplements ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Menopause drug reduces hot flashes by more than 70%, international clinical trial finds

FGF21 muscle hormone associated with slow ALS progression and extended survival

Hitting the right note: The healing power of music therapy in the cardiac ICU

Cardiovascular disease risk rises in Mexico, despite improved cholesterol control

Flexible optical touch sensor simultaneously pinpoints pressure strength and location

Achalasia diagnosis simplified to AI plus X-ray

PolyU scholars pioneer smart and sustainable personal cooling technologies to address global extreme heat

NIH grant aims for childhood vaccine against HIV

Menstrual cycle and long COVID: A relation confirmed

WMO report on global water resources: 2024 was characterized by both extreme drought and intense rainfall

New findings explain how a mutation in a cancer-related gen causes pulmonary fibrosis

Thermal trigger

SNU materials science and engineering team identifies reconstruction mechanism of copper alloy catalysts for CO₂ conversion

New book challenges misconceptions about evolution and our place in the tree of life

Decoding a decade of grouper grunts unlocks spawning secrets, shifts

Smart robots revolutionize structural health monitoring

Serum-derived hsa_circ_101555 as a diagnostic biomarker in non-hepatocellular carcinoma chronic liver disease

Korea University study identifies age 70 as cutoff for chemotherapy benefit in colorectal cancer

Study explores brain cell communication called ‘crosstalk’

4 beer and wine discoveries

Massage Therapy Foundation awards $299,465 research grant to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Chung-Ang University develops chloride-resistant Ru nanocatalysts for sustainable hydrogen production from seawater

Afghanistan’s August 2025 earthquake reveals the cost of international isolation, UN scientists warn

Shortlist announced for Panmure House Prize

Small nuclear RNA base editing a safer alternative to CRISPR, UC San Diego researchers find

Can Hayabusa2 touchdown? New study reveals space mission’s target asteroid is tinier and faster than thought

Millisecond windows of time may be key to how we hear, study finds

Graz University of Technology opens up new avenues in lung cancer research with digital cell twin

Exoplanets are not water worlds

Study shows increasing ‘healthy competition’ between menu options nudges patients towards greener, lower-fat hospital food choices

[Press-News.org] 2 studies on the use of breast MRI