A Better View Of Breast Cancer

By Jeffrey Ressner

Should women at high risk for breast cancer be getting MRIs? A new Dutch study of 2,000 women showed that magnetic resonance imaging detected 80% of tumors, while mammograms found only one-third. MRIs cost a lot more, however (roughly $1,000 vs. $100), and they're not perfect. MRIs produced false alarms 10% of the time, which meant three times as many unneeded biopsies. They also missed cancers that mammography caught. Still, the case for MRIs is strong enough for the American Cancer Society to recommend that women at high risk consider having both MRIs and mammograms.