MRI highly sensitive in detecting breast cancer
MR imaging of the breast has high sensitivity and lower specificity for the detection of breast cancer in patients with breast lesions, according to a study published in the January issue of Radiology.
Nicky H. G. M. Peters, MD, and colleagues at the University of Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands, conducted a meta-analysis of studies of patients suspected of having breast cancer who underwent MR imaging and biopsy. A summary receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed, and pooled weighted estimates of sensitivity and specificity were calculated by using the recently developed bivariate approach for diagnostic meta-analysis.
Of 251 eligible studies, 44 were included in the meta-analysis. The number of patients in each study ranged from 14 to 821, with a cancer prevalence of 23 percent to 84 percent.
Pooled weighted estimates of sensitivity and specificity were 0.90 and 0.72, respectively. According to the results, “specificity varied across the individual studies more than sensitivity did, and it varied with or across cancer prevalence and number of criteria used to differentiate benign from malignant lesions.”
The performance of breast MR imaging was influenced by the prevalence of cancer in the studied population and by whether two criteria (i.e., morphology, enhancement, and kinetic enhancement pattern)—versus one or three criteria—were used to differentiate benign from malignant lesions.
Peters and colleagues said they could not account for the higher specificity when two criteria (0.81) were used, than when one (0.74) or for three (0.67), and concluded that MR imaging is not yet a replacement for definitive characterization of breast lesions.
Nicky H. G. M. Peters, MD, and colleagues at the University of Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands, conducted a meta-analysis of studies of patients suspected of having breast cancer who underwent MR imaging and biopsy. A summary receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed, and pooled weighted estimates of sensitivity and specificity were calculated by using the recently developed bivariate approach for diagnostic meta-analysis.
Of 251 eligible studies, 44 were included in the meta-analysis. The number of patients in each study ranged from 14 to 821, with a cancer prevalence of 23 percent to 84 percent.
Pooled weighted estimates of sensitivity and specificity were 0.90 and 0.72, respectively. According to the results, “specificity varied across the individual studies more than sensitivity did, and it varied with or across cancer prevalence and number of criteria used to differentiate benign from malignant lesions.”
The performance of breast MR imaging was influenced by the prevalence of cancer in the studied population and by whether two criteria (i.e., morphology, enhancement, and kinetic enhancement pattern)—versus one or three criteria—were used to differentiate benign from malignant lesions.
Peters and colleagues said they could not account for the higher specificity when two criteria (0.81) were used, than when one (0.74) or for three (0.67), and concluded that MR imaging is not yet a replacement for definitive characterization of breast lesions.