Abstract
Preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly used in the workup of breast cancer patients and could lead to changes in surgical management. It is unclear how the information gained from MRI studies affects surgical decision making and influences clinical outcomes. These issues are addressed in this review.
PubMed database searches were performed to retrieve and analyze respective original research and review articles on preoperative MRI in the evaluation of breast cancer patients.
Preoperative MRI is a highly sensitive but nonspecific method that leads to changes in surgical management with increased numbers of more extended surgical interventions. It appears that a relatively large proportion of MRI-driven changes in surgical management result in overtreatment without conclusively proven beneficial effects on such clinical outcomes as decrease in reoperation rates or improved patient survival.
Thus, routine use of supplementary preoperative breast MRI should be discouraged until compelling evidence of its effectiveness is available.