April 2007 Lately@MSKCC

Recent reports touting the benefits of MRI screening for breast cancer have caused some understandable confusion. For most healthy women who have only an average risk of developing breast cancer, the screening recommendations developed by the American Cancer Society (ACS) remain unchanged: annual clinical breast examination and mammography beginning at age 40. Yet for some women at high risk for breast cancer and for women who have newly diagnosed cancer in one breast, the new ACS guidelines and a recent study suggest that MRI should be added to their screening plan.