High Cancer Yield and Positive Predictive Value: Outcomes at a Center Routinely Using Preoperative Breast MRI for Staging

High Cancer Yield and Positive Predictive Value: Outcomes at a Center Routinely Using Preoperative Breast MRI for Staging
Robert L. Gutierrez, Wendy B. DeMartini, Janet J. Silbergeld, Peter R. Eby, Sue Peacock, Sara H. Javid, and Constance D. Lehman
AJR 2011; 196:93-99

Link to Journal

Biopsy was recommended and performed for 152 of 570 (27%) patients found to have one or more suspicious lesions on MRI distinct from the index cancer. Sixty-seven of 152 women who underwent biopsy had additional cancers diagnosed, for a PPV of 44%. Overall, 12% (67/570) of women had otherwise occult cancers diagnosed by MRI, with 8% having additional sites or greater extent of ipsilateral disease and 4% having unsuspected contralateral cancer detected by MRI alone. No significant differences were found in the probability of detecting an occult cancer on the basis of patient age, breast density, index tumor characteristics, or lymph node status

Breast MRI detects otherwise occult cancer with an overall added cancer yield of 12% and a high PPV of 44% when applied to a diverse population of patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer