Expanding the indications for MRI in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer: What is best practice?

© 2015 The Authors. Breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) now has an accepted place in screening younger women at high risk of breast cancer, and is increasingly used in a number of other settings including assessment of response to neo-adjuvant therapy and local staging of cancer. Although the evidence for its general use in these settings is very limited, in highly selected patients, especially where discordance with conventional measurements occurs, MRI can have a place in assessing extent of disease, both whether operable and how operable, and guiding surgery. These scenarios and future indications and alternative technologies are explored in this paper. Breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) now has an accepted place in screening younger women at high risk of breast cancer, and is increasingly used in a number of other settings including assessment of response to neo-adjuvant therapy and local staging of cancer. Although the evidence for its general use in these settings is very limited, in highly selected patients, especially where discordance with conventional measurements occurs, MRI can have a place in assessing the extent of disease, both whether operable and how operable, and guiding surgery. These scenarios and future indications and alternative technologies are explored in this paper.