MRI vs. Mammography for High Risk Women

When the news stories related that Christina Applegate was diagnosed with breast cancer after an MRI … it started me thinking and researching (of course).

Christina was considered ‘at high risk’ for the disease because her mother had breast cancer — and MRI screening is recommended for those at high risk of the disease. Clearly, she was taking the possibility that she was predisposed to the disease seriously. That makes me so proud of her! I’m not sure if she or her mother ever had genetic testing to confirm that predisposition, but no matter — her mother had the disease and that meant she was at a greater risk than someone without a family history.

Here’s a quote from an online Q&A specifically asking if MRI is better than mammography for detecting breast cancer. I wanted to share this with you specifically to help you understand the current recommendation:

Right now the American Cancer Society (ACS) and most breast imaging researchers feel that the “responsible use of MRIs for the evaluation of the breast should be focused on patients with a high probability of breast cancer.” This is felt to include women who have a 20 percent or higher lifetime risk of breast cancer. Women in this high-risk category include those with a strong family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer or those who are likely or known carriers of the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation (a breast and ovarian cancer gene mutation). Annual breast screening by means of an MRI is also recommended for women who have undergone radiotherapy to the chest for Hodgkin’s disease.

There is a risk of false positives with an MRI, so they aren’t recommended for everyone — but again, if you are high risk, better to be ’safe than sorry’.

Here’s a You Tube video of a recent news clip that will recap this point visually for you all:

I want to reiterate and clarify and highlight this point: The American Cancer Society recommends MRIs, in addition to mammograms, starting at age 35, for women who are at high risk of the disease (that is, if your mother, sister or daughter had the disease).

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