“Breast MR spectroscopy is an exciting tool that may make breast cancer diagnosis much more specific, so that a woman does not have to undergo biopsy for a benign condition.” -- Elizabeth Morris, MD, Director of Breast MRI
at Memorial Sloan-Kettering |
MR spectroscopy is a screening method that measures chemical substances known as choline compounds, which are produced by cancerous breast tumors. MR spectroscopy helps radiologists to differentiate between benign and malignant tumors -- while adding only an additional ten minutes to the screening time. This ability to differentiate between tumor types is especially important in premenopausal women, who sometimes develop benign non-mass lesions as a result of variations in their hormone levels.
MRI + MR Spectroscopy Study
In the study, conducted at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and published in the October issue of Radiology, 32 women, ages 20 to 63, with MRI-identified non-mass breast lesions were screened with MR spectroscopy. Of these women, 25 had lesions that the radiologist performing the MRI had labeled as suspicious. The remaining seven women had already had their cancer confirmed by biopsy as part of a diagnostic MRI used to asses the extent of their cancer.
The results of the MR spectroscopy revealed that 15 of the 32 lesions had elevated choline levels. Of those 15, 12 were confirmed by tissue sample tests to be cancer while the remaining three were benign -- indicating that MRI screening combined with MR spectroscopy is 100 percent accurate at detecting cancer and 85 percent accurate at detecting malignant non-mass lesions. (Tissue sample tests were performed on each of the 32 lesions to determine malignancy.)
The study's authors point out that if only those lesions with elevated choline levels detected by MR spectroscopy were biopsied, 17 out of 25 women might have been spared unnecessary biopsies, with no cancers missed.
Consequently, the study suggests that MR spectroscopy combined with MRI screening can eliminate some of the false-positive results and unnecessary biopsies that occur when a woman is screened with only MRI.
"Breast MR spectroscopy is an exciting tool that may make breast cancer diagnosis much more specific, so that a woman does not have to undergo biopsy for a benign condition," says Elizabeth Morris, Director of Breast MRI at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and one of the study's authors. "We are excited and hopeful that the technology will improve women's health."
