Detection of Contralateral Malignancies on Breast MRI

Women with unilateral breast cancer are at increased risk for having simultaneous cancer of the contralateral breast. Overall, earlier detection of contralateral breast cancer prevents the burden of additional surgery or chemotherapy rounds and is associated with higher overall survival. However, MRI screening for the contralateral breast is seldom done following an initial unilateral breast cancer diagnosis. The purpose of this study is to retrospectively evaluate patients with known, biopsy-proven malignancy who went on to obtain a breast MRI and were later found to have cancer of the contralateral breast. Methods: This was a retrospective study that reviewed the charts of women aged over 18 years who were determined to have synchronous bilateral breast cancer from January 2017 to January 2022 at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL. The study extracted data from this institution's cancer registry database, which provided information on patients with breast cancer diagnoses. The study conducted a review of mammography (MAM) and MRI imaging reports to ascertain the presence or absence of contralateral breast cancer identified by each respective imaging modality. Surgical pathology reports from the biopsy of the contralateral breast were reviewed to obtain information on the histological type of cancer and TNM (tumor, node, metastasis) staging.