The Use of Breast MRI for Patients With Preoperative Breast Cancer in an Underserved Population

Abstract Background Use of MRI for preoperative evaluation of newly diagnosed breast cancer has become more common, despite questionable impact on outcomes. We sought to determine how often and in what manner preoperative breast MRI changed surgical management in an underserved patient population. Materials and methods We examined the use of preoperative MRI at Bellevue Hospital Center (BHC), a public, tertiary hospital in lower Manhattan with a large underserved population. The BHC breast clinic database was used to identify patients who received preoperative MRI for breast cancer between January 2015 and December 2016. MRI was defined as changing surgical management in a positive manner if an MRI-detected abnormality had verification of malignancy in the final surgical specimen, confirming the MRI indication for wider excision or mastectomy, while MRI was defined to change surgical management in a negative manner if final pathology was discordant with MRI. Chi-square test was used to analyze characteristics of those who received MRI versus those who did not. Results A total of 208 patients underwent breast surgery at BHC, and 62 patients underwent MRI for preoperative planning purposes. There were significant differences between the MRI and no MRI group in terms of ethnicity ( P  = 0.05), age ( P P  = 0.03). 50% of the biopsies performed as a result of MRI were benign. MRI changed surgical management in 35 % of patients, most commonly by converting lumpectomy to mastectomy. Of cases in which MRI changed surgical management, most were positive changes. However, 4 patients underwent surgery and 11 patients underwent biopsy for benign pathology as a result of MRI findings. Conclusions MRI requires significant hospital and patient resource utilization. Especially in an underserved population, decision for MRI must be individualized, taking into account the risks and benefits of ordering this test.