%0 Journal Article
%T Breast imaging technology: Application of magnetic resonance imaging to early detection of breast cancer
%A Mitchell D Schnall
%J Breast Cancer Research
%D 2000
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/bcr265
%X It is estimated that approximately one in nine women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. For example, in the USA it is estimated that 180 000 women develop breast cancer, and approximately 45 000 women die of the disease each year [1]. It has been demonstrated [2] that the smaller the lesion is at the time of detection, the better the prognosis. The ability of mammography screening to reduce breast cancer mortality rates was demonstrated by several studies performed in the US and Europe [3,4,5]. As much as a 23% reduction in breast cancer mortality for the screened population has been demonstrated. Additional studies, such as the Breast Cancer Demonstration Project sponsored by the US National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society in the 1970s [6], also demonstrated reduction in breast cancer mortality in a screened population. It is now generally accepted that careful screening with mammography will reduce the breast cancer mortality rate in a given population.Despite the success of mammography screening, mammography does have limitations. Perhaps its most significant limitation is the difficulty in detecting masses within radiographically dense breast [7]. In addition, cancers can be missed by mammography. Retrospective studies of breast cancer in which prior mammograms where read as negative [8,9,10] showed that the cancer was visible in retrospect in approximately one-third of the cases. In addition, the relatively low specificity of mammography leads to many breast biopsies that reveal benign tissue [11].Over the past 10 years there has been great progress in our understanding of risk factors for breast cancer. The use of genetic testing or risk modeling allows women to be stratified according to risk [12**,13**]. In addition, it has been suggested that the radiographic density of a woman's mammogram may influence her risk for breast cancer [14**]. High-risk patients develop breast cancer when they are young and when the sensitivity of mammog
%K breast cancer
%K contrast-enhanced
%K high-risk
%K magnetic resonance imaging
%U http://breast-cancer-research.com/content/3/1/17