Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV.
MRI is excellent for looking at scar tissue. MRI is able to distinguish between scar tissue and recurrent tumors. Therefore, breast MRI can evaluate a significant change in the lumpectomy site. It can determine how much cancer has spread beyond the surgical site after a breast biopsy or lumpectomy.
A breast MRI usually requires the use of contrast that is injected into a vein in the arm before or during the procedure. The dye may help create clearer images that outline abnormalities more easily. MRI, used with mammography and breast ultrasound, can be a useful diagnostic tool. Recent research has found that MRI can locate some small breast lesions sometimes missed by mammography. It can also help detect breast cancer in women with breast implants and in younger women who tend to have dense breast tissue.