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American Morning

MRIs Versus Mammograms

Aired May 07, 2003 - 08:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: There is new evidence this morning that MRIs may be better than mammograms in detecting breast cancer, especially for women who are at high risk for the disease.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center now with important findings on this.

Hi, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Heidi.

Yes, really interesting thing here regarding MRIs and mammograms. Heard for a long time that MRIs may be of more value actually than mammograms at looking at patients with breast cancer. What they're talking about specifically here are high-risk patients, patients who have previously had a history of breast cancer, patients who have a first degree relative with breast cancer, or patients who have the bracket gene. That's the breast cancer gene, either the first one or the second one; if they have either one of those genes, they are considered high risk.

This interesting study now -- they looked at 367 of these high- risk women, and found that 59 of them required biopsy, 17 of them have ultimately had breast cancer.

The numbers aren't that important, but here is the important thing to keep in mind: 24 percent, or about a quarter of them, they did not find on mammogram, they only found it on the MRI scan.

Also, in a separate study presented at this same meeting, they looked at women who have previously had lumpectomy, and now we're getting a test to see, is there any cancer left over. And what they found here as well was that MRIs were better at mammograms at finding any residual tumor compared to the mammograms. So two studies, again, on high-risk women and on women that previously had lumpectomy, there is now some early evidence to suggest that the MRI might in fact be better.

MRIs, incidentally, Heidi, it's a test that's been around for quite some time; it's not a new test. It's been around. Now they're using new applications for this particular test, and this might be one of them -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Boy, Heidi, I don't know, I mean, listening to you talk, it seems like just skip the whole, you know, mammogram and go straight for the MRI, because it's able to detect more. GUPTA: Yes, and you know, that's an interesting point actually, because if you think about MRI scans and think about mammograms, you're talking about screening tests. You're talking typically about people who don't have a history of breast cancer, yet they haven't actually been diagnosed with a tumor, and that's considered a screening test. You look for several criteria for a good screening test. It has to be cost effective. It has to be noninvasive, meaning you're not going to get poked. It has to have pretty ease of use, and people are going to have to want to do it; they're going to have to be compliant with it.

And what they find is that mammograms tend to be a pretty good screening tense. While not quite as sensitive in some of these situations than MRI scans, they've much easier to use, they're much cheaper, and probably a better screening test all around.

Having said all that, I think a better screening test than mammograms and MRIs is still something that the cancer community need to be working toward.

COLLINS: All right, talk about those MRIs being a little bit claustrophobic sometimes.

Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for the update on that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired May 7, 2003 - 08:49   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: There is new evidence this morning that MRIs may be better than mammograms in detecting breast cancer, especially for women who are at high risk for the disease.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center now with important findings on this.

Hi, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Heidi.

Yes, really interesting thing here regarding MRIs and mammograms. Heard for a long time that MRIs may be of more value actually than mammograms at looking at patients with breast cancer. What they're talking about specifically here are high-risk patients, patients who have previously had a history of breast cancer, patients who have a first degree relative with breast cancer, or patients who have the bracket gene. That's the breast cancer gene, either the first one or the second one; if they have either one of those genes, they are considered high risk.

This interesting study now -- they looked at 367 of these high- risk women, and found that 59 of them required biopsy, 17 of them have ultimately had breast cancer.

The numbers aren't that important, but here is the important thing to keep in mind: 24 percent, or about a quarter of them, they did not find on mammogram, they only found it on the MRI scan.

Also, in a separate study presented at this same meeting, they looked at women who have previously had lumpectomy, and now we're getting a test to see, is there any cancer left over. And what they found here as well was that MRIs were better at mammograms at finding any residual tumor compared to the mammograms. So two studies, again, on high-risk women and on women that previously had lumpectomy, there is now some early evidence to suggest that the MRI might in fact be better.

MRIs, incidentally, Heidi, it's a test that's been around for quite some time; it's not a new test. It's been around. Now they're using new applications for this particular test, and this might be one of them -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Boy, Heidi, I don't know, I mean, listening to you talk, it seems like just skip the whole, you know, mammogram and go straight for the MRI, because it's able to detect more. GUPTA: Yes, and you know, that's an interesting point actually, because if you think about MRI scans and think about mammograms, you're talking about screening tests. You're talking typically about people who don't have a history of breast cancer, yet they haven't actually been diagnosed with a tumor, and that's considered a screening test. You look for several criteria for a good screening test. It has to be cost effective. It has to be noninvasive, meaning you're not going to get poked. It has to have pretty ease of use, and people are going to have to want to do it; they're going to have to be compliant with it.

And what they find is that mammograms tend to be a pretty good screening tense. While not quite as sensitive in some of these situations than MRI scans, they've much easier to use, they're much cheaper, and probably a better screening test all around.

Having said all that, I think a better screening test than mammograms and MRIs is still something that the cancer community need to be working toward.

COLLINS: All right, talk about those MRIs being a little bit claustrophobic sometimes.

Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for the update on that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com