Molecular Breast Imaging Supplemental Screening for Dense Breasts

Molecular breast imaging (MBI) is effective as a supplementary screening tool to mammography for women with dense breasts, according to a study published in the American Journal of Roentgenology.

Researchers from Ohio, California, and New Hampshire performed a retrospective study to assess the utility of MBI as a supplementary screening tool for 1,696  women with dense breast tissue. They sought to determine cancer detection rates, recall rates, biopsy rates, and positive predictive values (PPVs).

The results showed that 13 mammographically occult malignancies were detected among the study group. Eleven were invasive, one was node positive, and one had unknown node positivity. Other findings showed:

• Lesion size ranged from 0.6 to 2.4 cm, mean 1.1 cm[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_crop","fid":"50915","attributes":{"alt":"©RSNA 2015.","class":"media-image media-image-right","id":"media_crop_9213433233653","media_crop_h":"0","media_crop_image_style":"-1","media_crop_instance":"6242","media_crop_rotate":"0","media_crop_scale_h":"0","media_crop_scale_w":"0","media_crop_w":"0","media_crop_x":"0","media_crop_y":"0","style":"height: 151px; width: 170px; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; margin: 1px; float: right;","title":"©RSNA 2015.","typeof":"foaf:Image"}}]]

• Incremental cancer detection rate was 7.7%

• Recall rate was 8.4%

• Biopsy rate was 3.7%

• PPV for recall (PPV 1) was 9.1%

• PPV for biopsy (PPV 3) was 19.4%

While MBI does expose women to a higher radiation dose than does standard mammography, the effective dose from the MBI exam was 2.3 mSv, compared with a typical mammography dose of 0.56 mSv. “When incorporated into a community-based clinical practice environment, molecular breast imaging yielded a high incremental cancer detection rate of 7.7 percent at an acceptable radiation dose,” the researchers concluded.