Screening in the high-risk populations: Stage of breast cancer when detected by combination imaging with MRI and mammogram.

44 Background: Screening patients at high-risk for the development of breast cancer consists of MRI and mammography. This retrospective review of screening MRIs in patients designated as high-risk for the development of breast cancer--based on family history alone or a calculated lifetime risk of ≥ 20%--seeks to determine the utility of MRI screening in the detection of early-stage breast cancer. The primary outcome evaluated was stage of malignancy detected through screening imaging. Methods: Results of screening imaging performed between 1/1/08 and 12/31/11 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients who had a personal history of breast cancer were excluded. Remaining screens were categorized based on the following criteria: family history, BRCA mutation or high-risk as calculated by risk assessment tools. Screens with corresponding core biopsies were evaluated for the following: previous imaging obtained, core biopsy pathology and pathologic staging. Results: 118 patients met inclusion criteria and had a subsequent biopsy as a result of screening. Resultant pathology was 75 (64%; 75/118) benign lesions, 19 (16%; 19/118) atypical lesions, and 24 (20%; 24/118) malignant lesions. Of the 24 malignant lesions, 1 (4%; 1/24) were found to be node-positive at the time of surgical staging, and, 23 (96%; 23/24) were node-negative. Conclusions: Four percent (1/24) of patients undergoing high-risk screening had nodal disease at surgical staging, which compares favorably to historical rates of approximately 30% node-positive disease at diagnosis (Krag DN et al., NSABP B-32). Therefore, this study shows that screening high-risk patients can decrease the nodal-positivity rate.