Diagnostic Imaging (10/19) reports that research suggests “imaging with PET and MRI for patients with breast cancer may help identify liver and bone metastases, but not pulmonary metastases.” The findings were published in Radiology. 

Diagnostic Imaging (10/17) reports that research indicated “supplemental screening ultrasound and MRI examinations among women with dense breast tissue increased after the implementation of the New Jersey breast density law (NJBDL), while use of MRI reduced the number of biopsies.” The findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. 

HealthImaging (10/18, Pearson) reports, “Clinicians evaluating women with nondense breasts who are experiencing focal breast pain will find little to no value adding directed ultrasound to digital mammography when the latter is indicated due to screening scheduling,” researchers found. The study authors concluded that “extra imaging may do more harm than good, as it is unlikely to find more cancers than mammography alone in these patients and may spur unnecessary treatments of harmless conditions.” The findings of the 369-woman study were published online in Academic Radiology. 

Aunt Minnie (10/14) reports that “breast cancer patients often face the additional risk of distant metastases, and” research suggests “the best way to find the presence of those abnormalities in the liver and bone is with PET/MRI.” The findings were published in Radiology. 

"This has been a pattern at the NEJM for years, where they publish papers regarding breast cancer screening that have major scientific flaws," said Daniel Kopans, MD, a professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, who was asked for comment.

Dr Kopans focused on one of the study's assumptions ― that the underlying burden of clinically meaningful breast cancer was unchanged over time. This assumption is important because it supports the conclusion of overdiagnosis.