Women with a high genetic risk for breast cancer run a better chance of having it detected with magnetic resonance imaging than with mammography and other methods, researchers said on Tuesday.The kind of breast cancer involved is caused by mutations of the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, believed responsible for 5 percent to 10 percent of all breast cancer cases. Women with the mutations have a significantly higher risk of breast cancer.Researchers at Canada’s Toronto-Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Center said they studied 236 women with the mutations aged 25 to 65 who underwent annual screenings from 1997 to 2003 using all methods.They found that 17 cancers in the group were detected by MRI compared to eight by mammography, seven by ultrasound and two by semiannual clinical breast examinations.
