Well, that's my question in response to this new recommendation.

A major medical group is recommending for the first time that women at greatest risk of breast cancer undergo MRI exams every year to try to catch more tumors at their earliest, most treatable stages.

The American Cancer Society is issuing new guidelines today that urge annual MRIs for women at high risk because of a strong family history of the disease, a genetic predisposition or other reasons. As many as 1.6 million women in the United States fall into this high-risk category.

For these women, the recommendation adds the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) exam to the standard tools that doctors should use routinely to detect breast cancer, marking the most significant change in the society's influential screening guidelines since doctors started recommending annual mammograms. The more sensitive MRI exams can pick up small tumors that mammograms frequently miss.

"The goal here is to do a better job of finding breast cancer early, when they are much more likely to be treated successfully," said Robert A. Smith, the society's director of screening.

The guidelines stop short of recommending annual MRI breast screening for all women, saying that there is insufficient evidence to support wider use of the relatively costly exams. But they say that women at a lesser, but still elevated, risk because, for example, they are breast cancer survivors or have a family history of the disease, should consult with their doctors about undergoing regular MRIs as well.

The guidelines stress that the exams should be done in addition to annual mammograms and regular physical exams in the hope of driving down the death toll from the common, widely feared malignancy.

Some question whether or not there is sufficient MRI capacity in the country to meet this call -- but I have no doubt that the machines can be manufactured and the operators trained in relatively short order. After all, look at the number of private imaging centers springing up around the country.

The issue is cash. Will insurance companies and government programs be prepared to regularly make the sort of payments this will require, as millions of new MRIs are done each year for cancer screening. After all, MRIs are around $500 a pop. This is out of reach of many patients without insurance help or other programs.

Posted by: Greg at 10:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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