No Effect of Pretreatment Breast MRI on the Timing of Surgical Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer

Background Although breast MRI has been shown to be more sensitive in the diagnosis of breast cancer than conventional mammography, one criticism breast MRI has faced in the preoperative treatment planning is that it can delay treatment. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed of all women diagnosed and treated for breast cancer over three consecutive years at an American university hospital. The subjects were divided into two groups: those who received preoperative breast MRI and those who did not. There were 189 patients included in this study, of whom 109 (57.67%) received pretreatment breast MRI. Results Median time to treatment was not significantly different between pretreatment MRI and no pretreatment MRI groups (32 days versus 34.5 days, P =.950). Adjusting for age, detection method, stage, and histology type did not change this conclusion. Conclusions At this institution, preoperative breast MRI for patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer seemed to have no significant effect on the timing of surgical treatment in cases of newly diagnosed breast cancer.