| "Women newly diagnosed with the disease and those at high risk should have the screening, researchers say." " In women newly diagnosed with cancer in one breast, an MRI can find the disease in the opposite breast more effectively than standard mammography or clinical examination, scientists said Tuesday." "MRI, which stands for magnetic resonance imaging, detected cancers that had been missed by the other methods in 3.1% of patients in a large clinical study, researchers said." " The report, published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, means that nearly 180,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. each year should receive an MRI, said Dr. Constance D. Lehman, lead study author and professor of radiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine." "The additional screening could help spare women unnecessary mastectomies or repeated treatments because of the inaccuracies of conventional methods." ""What this has the potential to do is help women make better decisions about the course of their treatment," said Robert A. Smith, director of cancer screening for the American Cancer Society and author of an accompanying editorial." "Dr. John Glaspy, director of the outpatient oncology clinic at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center who was not involved in the research, said the study would change medical practice ? but at a cost of many millions of dollars. Each MRI costs $1,000 to $2,000, he said, about 10 times the expense of a mammogram." ""The tough issue it raises is that as technology gets better and the cost of healthcare rises higher, more people are going to be left behind and widen the disparity between the haves and have-nots," he said. " " The study coincided with the release Tuesday of the American Cancer Society's new breast cancer screening guidelines, which for the first time recommend an annual MRI for high-risk women ? those with at least a 20% to 25% lifetime risk of developing the disease. Average lifetime risk for all women is 12% to 13%." "The high-risk group includes women who had received chest radiation between ages 10 and 30, had a genetic mutation making them susceptible to breast cancer, or had a relative with one of the key mutated genes." "The society said MRI screening was cost effective for the approximately 650,000 women in the high-risk group. " "These women account for about 1% of the 65 million women older
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