Breast MRI is playing an increasing role in imaging breast cancer (see textbook article) and review article here. There are some concerns that routine MRI results in needless mastectomies (go here).

An MRI will show normal anatomy well (here) and is helpful in following women who have had surgery (here) and radiation (here). In young women with dense breasts, it may be difficult to identify a small breast cancer on a mammogram. There is increasing evidence that an MRI be more sensitive in the early diagnosis of breast cancers as noted below and go here. MRI is superior in finding DCIS (go here).

Go here for more MRI images and here for MRI and screening. There is some concern that breast MRI may be leading to unnecessary mastectomies. A large study of breast MRI in women with breast cancer, noted that they found an abnormality in 9%, but 4% were malignant and 5% were benign (go here).