RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: Breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has attained a solid position in the diagnosis of breast cancer but its benefit is still to be confirmed in the preoperative staging. The authors assessed the impact of preoperative breast MRI on surgical management of breast cancer in two university hospitals. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This retrospective review was realized in two university hospitals and concerned all patients with breast carcinoma who had a surgical first therapy. We selected 89 patients who underwent preoperative breast MRI in the period between January 2008 and December 2009. RESULTS: The sensitivity of breast MRI for detecting breast tumor was 95%. Fourteen percent of patients had a multifocal disease, 10% a multicentric disease and 2% a synchronous bilateral cancer. The correlation of radiological tumor size with histopathological size was r=0.68 in IRM compared to r=0.45 in conventional imaging (P<0.001). Nineteen additional biopsies were performed and 9.9% of false-positive findings were detected. Retrospectively, planned surgical management was altered in 9% of patients, resulted from use of breast MRI. Six patients had conversion of planned breast conservation to mastectomy and two patients underwent contralateral lumpectomy after discover synchronous bilateral cancer. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Breast MRI was very sensitive for the detection of breast carcinoma and improved local staging in almost 9% of patients. But, low specificity of this imaging requires a systematically validation of additional lesions by biopsy before surgical planning.