Feasibility of ultra high field 7.0 Tesla MRI for the detection of breast cancer

Every year over 10.000 Dutch women are diagnosed with invasive breast cancer.
This makes breast cancer the cancer type with the highest incidence in Dutch
women.
When a breast lesion is detected, conventional triple diagnosis, which consists
of palpation, mammography and fine-needle cytology, currently with the addition
of ultrasound imaging, is performed to establish the diagnosis. Before
treatment can be initiated accurate staging needs to be conducted to develop an
individualized treatment plan. Staging requires precise knowledge of the size
of the index lesion as well as of the presence or absence of lesions in other
quadrants of the breast.
Magnetic resonance imaging has an additional value in the staging of breast
cancer due to its capability to depict multicentric and multifocal disease, to
assess the tumor in a three-dimensional way and to detect lesions in dense
breast tissue. In recent years there has been an increasing interest in MRI as
a non-invasive diagnostic modality for the work-up of suspicious breast
lesions. The sensitivity of MRI for diagnosing breast cancer is over 90% with
specificity around 70%
Recently ultra-high field 7.0 Tesla MRI has become clinically available. The
availability of ultra high field 7T MRI offers new diagnostic possibilities:
due to the very high magnetic field strength of the scanner, images can be
acquired at a higher spatial resolution allowing smaller structural detail to
be depicted. For breast cancer this would mean not just the detection of
smaller lesions, but also better morphologic classification of detected lesions
and better delineation of lesion extent.

Feasibility of 7T beast MRI for the detection of breast cancer.

Prospective cohort study.

The patient will have to fill out an MRI safety form before entering the 7T MRI
area. An iv catheter will be inserted to administer contrast agent used during
the MRI exam. The patient will undergo one MRI exam.
As far as is known there are no short- or long term risks involved in having an
MRI examination. Some patient will experience light flashes or tingling due to
the very high magnetic field of the 7 Tesla MRI. This will immediately
disappear as soon as leaving the scanning area. Participants are not requested
to take any precautions or actions following to or prior to the MRI exam.
The contrast agent administered during the exam is daily used in clinical
practice during imaging. In rare cases an allergic reaction can occur, such as
an itch, nausea or small bumps on the skin. In the vast majority of cases these
symptoms pass quickly. In extremely rare cases acute allergic reactions can
occur, in patients with known contrast allergies, which do require medical
treatment. Therefore these patients are excluded from participation in this
study. For safety reasons at all times a patient is scanned on the 7T MRI and
contrast is given a medical doctor will be present.