Just What the Doctor Ordered
With the latest technological breakthroughs, there is now a breast MRI exam that is giving more hope to high-risk breast cancer patients and their families.
The breast MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) exam creates clear soft tissue images that are helping physicians screen, diagnose and treat their patients.
“Breast MRI is very sensitive but not very specific. Also, it’s a relatively long exam so it is not a very good screening exam. It’s not an examination for the patient for the general population as a whole, but it’s a very good exam for a problem-solving exam,” radiologist Susan Barrows said.
This is why Linda Carbon’s physician recommended she have the breast MRI exam at California Imaging Institute after her routine mammogram failed to show a lump in her breast.
“They felt a lump the mammogram did not show, and they were concerned because of family history of cancer,” Carbon said.
“The California Imaging Institute is the only place locally that can do full-service imaging and a breast biopsy guided with MRI,” Barrows said.
The MRI machine uses high magnetic field strength and an injected paramagnetic substance to image the soft tissues of the breast.
After her breast MRI, Linda waited four days for her results, and the thought of having breast cancer was terrifying, she said.
“…I have a son that is in 24-hour care and that was the one main worry that I had was, who was going to take care of him if something happened to me?” Carbon said.
On Valentine’s Day, Carbon anxiously awaited a phone call from her doctor. Her results were negative for cancer. She said it was the best Valentine’s Day gift she could have asked for.
Barrows said, “As many as 10% of patients with breast cancer in one breast will have another lesion that wasn’t evident on the mammogram or the ultrasound. That’s kind of scary. So that’s why so many patients really benefit from having a breast MRI.”
The MRI is used for staging cancer or determining tumor size, surgical planning and even monitoring the progress of chemotherapy.
“I think that it’s really exciting that Fresno has this level of medical care that you would normally only find in a big city,” said Barrows.
This story was reported special by Toni LaSalle. She can be reached at MedWatchToday@communitymedical.org.