Role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in differentiating post therapeutic changes from recurrent malignant breast lesions

Abstract

DCE-MRI has been shown to aid significantly in detection and characterization of primary and recurrent breast cancers. The sensitivity of breast MR imaging for detection of residual and recurrent tumors in the post-operative breast is over 90%. Breast MR imaging has been shown to be useful in differentiating scar tissue from tumor recurrence regarding the non-enhancing areas which have a high negative predictive value for malignancy (88–96%) . It is also a valuable technique and more specific in differentiation of post irradiation changes from recurrent carcinoma in patients who had undergone breast irradiation .