Topic: Breast MRI

Hi. Yes, I had a mri after biopsy which was normal. I had another one 8 months later, which was also normal. I will be having an mri once a year for good. They are not too bad. Good luck, Nada. Also many docs, including Susan Love and the Susan G. Komen people call DCIS a pre-cancer. The reason is that cancer is invasive and life threatening and pure dcis is not. At this point, they feel that only 30- 50% of dcis turns to invasive. However, it needs to be treated to prevent invasive. I think it's really just semantics. I don't call it anything but DCIS. If people ask, I say it's pre-invasive, or a pre-cursor to invasive. Nada

Trudie ~

Yes, after my needle biopsy I had a MRI to "rule out other breast" as well as to see how much DCIS was involved.  I ended up having a mastectomy due to multi-centric which meant I had it widespread w/in my breast. So a lumpectomy wasn't an option.   MRI's pick up what mamo's can't anymore.  It seems to be protocol now.

I was told DCIS is cancer.  Its contained with in the milk ducts so it hasn't 'spread' and usually no chemo nor rads ( Although I fell into a 'grey zone' and had to have 7 weeks of radiation on a mastectomy no less...BUT this doesn't happen very much...lucky me !

Best of Luck...you will soon be on the path of healing!

Much LUV

I had an MRI prior to surgery too and for me it was really helpful in my decision making.

Before the MRI, I'd had three biopsies for calcifications.  A stereotactic biopsy on my right breast came back as ADH; after this, I had an excisional biopsy that showed lots of high grade DCIS and a microinvasion of IDC.  Right after that, I had stereotactic biopsy on my left breast that came back as being nothing more than harmless calcifications.  At that point, my surgeon sent me an MRI.  The MRI showed all sorts of 'stuff' in my right breast - the surgeon said that he couldn't know for sure if it was cancer or not (a diagnosis cannot be made from an MRI), but it clearly wasn't normal breast tissue.  My left breast came back showing no abnormalities.  That made my  decision on surgery an easy one - I had a right breast single mastectomy. My preference was to have a lumpectomy, but the excisional biopsy had already removed a lot of breast tissue and the MRI results were obviously concerning so I was convinced that a mastectomy was my only real choice.  On the left side, with the clear MRI plus the benign biopsy results, I was comfortable that there were no problems.  As it turned out, there was a lot more DCIS in my right breast.  And 2+ years out, my left breast so far is fine.

BTW, my docs all called DCIS cancer.  Since DCIS requires the same treatment as any other breast cancer (except for chemo, which isn't required for some invasive cancers either), I prefer to think of DCIS as being pre-invasive breast cancer.  While I know it's controversial with some doctors, personally I think it's misleading and inaccurate to suggest that DCIS is pre-cancer.  DCIS cells are breast cancer cells, exactly the same as other breast cancer cells; the DCIS cells simply happen to be contained within the milk ducts (for now anyway).  I know that I would have had a big problem (particularly psychologically) if I'd been told that DCIS is a pre-cancer but I still needed to have a mastectomy. 

Trudie,

I, too, had an MRI prior to surgery. First mammo(s), then sterotactic biopsy which gave me the dx. The surgeon has all his patients have an MRI to be more sure of the dx and to see if there is anything going on in the other breast. As it happened, the MRI spotted something on the other side, which prompted an ultrasound and u/s-guided biopsy. That came out clear, so it was on to the partial mastectomy for the DCIS in the right breast.

This took up about 3 weeks from when I first met with him til the actual surgery. He had the MRI timed to 7 days after the start of my period to ensure the best pictures and reduce false positives.

The wait was agonizing, but in the long run it eased not only my mind but that of the doc.

As to the pre-cancer vs cancer, obviously the doctor at Royal Bart. is better :)

take care.

Trudie -- After my first biopsy confirmed DCIS in one breast, the surgeon sent me for a bilat MRI to rule out anything more, in both breasts. It opened up a can of worms -- lead to 2 more biopsies (1 benign and 1 ADH). And it scared me silly. We had talked about a lumpectomy, then after the MRI the possibility of a bilat mastecomy was raised. But I elected to have 2 MRI-guided biopsies. So, I ended up with a lumpectomy after all.

Not looking forward to my yearly MRIs, since they might show too much, but at the moment, I'll still follow through with biopsies.

Hi everyone,

I was just diagnosed with DCIS last week, it was contained inside a 4mm papilloma, I had an excisional biopsy with clear margins, grade 2 DCIS, I am going for am MRI on Thurs prior to starting radiation.  My breast surgeon told me that the chance of MRI not being able to detect DCIS could be up to 50%.  Does anyone know about this? Anyone have any trouble with DCIS being missed afrter all the tests?

Can someone answer questions about a breast MRI for me? What is it like?  Is it like a normal MRI?  I had an MRI several years ago for problems with my neck, shoulder, and arm.  Will this be similar?  Will I just lay still in the machine while they click the buttons for pictures?

The nurse who scheduled it gave me a choice of mid day or 9 in the evening.  I have missed so much work that I opted for the 9 in the evening so I wouldn't have to miss more work.  She then explained that it would be a male tech. to do the MRI and wanted to know if that would be okay.  I wasn't sure why it would matter if I am just laying in that machine getting pictures made.  Is there something I don't know? 

Can someone fill me in?

Thanks

Jan

Thank you so much for the helpful information.  Does this mean I will be laying on my stomach? I have already had a mastectomy on my right side with reconstruction(implant).  I have not had a period since last fall so that shouldn't be a problem. 

Many thanks for taking time to answer my questions.

Jan

This is a result of a fibroidnoma that has shown change over the past year.  I have had this about 6 or 7 years and the original biopsy at that time was benign.  I was diagnosed with DCIS Feb. of 07 and had a mastectomy. I had an expander put in and got my implant in June.  I had a 6 month check up in Sept. and then another check in April. The radiologist who did my mammogram found this and felt that it needed to be removed. My dr. had already talked about doing an MRI in Aug. so we decided to go ahead and do it now. My MRI is Mon. and I will see the dr. on the 20th. 

Thanks again for answering my questions.  This has helped to ease my mind.

Jan 

I was diagnosed on 2/1/08 with DCIS.  I am currently receiving radiation (51.5% done).  My radiation oncologist has said that since I am a small busted woman, MRIs aren't going to detect anything in the chest wall.  I have not yet had an MRI on my right breast, I am at this point, just planning on having the digital mammos until I hear differently.  Am curious if anyone else has heard this about small breasted women?