An additional 1 million to 2 million women per year who are at high risk for breast cancer should receive breast magnetic resonance imaging, according to new guidelines by the American Cancer Society, yet radiologists say they currently cannot meet the new demand, reports The New York Times. And a study published in the current issue of The New England Journal of Medicine advises that women who are newly diagnosed with breast cancer--about 180,000 cases this year--should also receive breast MRI, which was shown to detect tiny tumors in the other breast in 3% of women studied. The new guidelines from the American Cancer Society advise that, starting at age 30, women who have a 20% or higher risk of developing breast cancer get MRI once a year. And although surgeons currently differ on which new breast cancer patients should receive MRI to detect additional tumors, younger women with dense breast tissue will likely be the best candidates, say experts.
The costs associated with the increased use of breast MRI could be great, said the Times article. With breast MRI running at nearly 10 times the cost of mammography, 1 million scans would equal at least $1 billion.
