“Impact of Presurgical Breast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) on Surgical Planning – A Retrospective Analysis from a Private Radiology Group”
Williamsville, NY, March 18, 2013: Windsong collaborated on an article with Windsong Comprehensive Breast Care Team headed up by Dr. X. Cynthia Fan. Collaborative authors included Takuma Nemoto MD, Anna Chen DO, Anthony Foti MD, Markus Holzhauer MD, Patrick Lahr MD, Eric Snitzer MD, Thomas Summers MD, David Wolf MD, Janet Sung MD, Karen Blatto RT, Emily Mangiafesto RT and Jodi Sundberg RT. Dr. Fan’s team published their retrospective analysis regarding the impact of breast MRI on presurgical planning in THE BREAST JOURNAL this month.
This retrospective study was performed on 445 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients who underwent presurgical breast MRIs from November 1, 2008 through October 31, 2009. MRI detected additional breast cancers in 14.8% of these patients, including 4.9% in contralateral breast and 10.8% of incremental ipsilateral breast cancers. 23.9% of the patients have their surgical plan modified based on MRI findings. The data supports the value of presurgical breast MRI. This study also showed that older age, family history and the presence of DCIS can be potential risk factors for bilateral synchronous breast cancers, while younger aged patients are more likely to have unilateral, multifocal or multicentric cancers.
Dr. Fan came to Windsong in July of 2008 as a fellowship trained Women’s Imager after finishing her training at the University of Michigan Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan. “Windsong and Western New York are fortunate to have Dr. Fan join our team bringing her skills as a clinician in women’s imaging as well as her strong academic credentials,” according to Dr. Anna Chen, Director of Women’s Imaging of Windsong.
Dr. Fan states, “our data confirms that presurgical breast MRI plays an important role in surgical planning. This is not only relevant to specialists who treat breast cancer patients, such as breast surgeons and oncologists, but also important information for all other medical professionals, especially family physicians and gynecologists, who quite often will be one of the first two physicians to discuss the new diagnosis of breast cancer with the patient (the other one is the radiologist), and to order these presurgical MRIs. The clinical data is from our local patients. It is important to share our research result with our western New York community. Our fight against breast cancer is an endless process, and presurgical breast MRI is one of the important tools we can utilize.”
Dr. Fan leads the Research Division for Windsong Comprehensive Breast Care, and in addition to specialized work in women’s imaging, she dedicates her skill set to CT, MRI and Ultrasound imaging.
For more information on this study, Windsong or The Windsong Comprehensive Breast Care, contact Windsong at 716-631-2500 ext. 2260.
