Study backs MRI breast cancer checks

Detecting breast cancer with magnetic resonance imaging is cost-effective for women who carry a gene mutation that puts them at higher risk for the disease, a US study has found.

Though rare, the inherited BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations increase a woman's lifetime risk of breast cancer by as much as 80 per cent.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) costs 10 times more than mammography but is capable of detecting hard-to-find tumors earlier.

Using a computer model that set a threshold of $160,000 spent for each year of life gained, researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine concluded MRIs were cost-effective for women aged 35 to 54 who had the BRCA1 mutation.

MRIs were also cost-effective for women in that age group with the BRCA2 defect for whom mammographies were not sensitive enough to detect tumors it said.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, concluded: "With substantial declines in its cost, breast MRI screening is likely to represent an acceptable value for a broader group of women."

- REUTERS