Does a supplementary preoperative breast MRI in patients with invasive lobular breast cancer change primary and secondary surgical interventions?

BACKGROUND: We evaluated whether a supplementary preoperative breast MRI in patients with invasive lobular breast cancer (ILC) has changed number and methods of primary and number of secondary surgical interventions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a retrospective controlled single-center analysis of 178 ILC patients. The 2 study groups consisted of 92 patients with breast MRI (MRI group) and of 86 patients without breast MRI (non-MRI group). We investigated the primary and final surgical procedures and factors that influenced the number of secondary surgical interventions.

RESULTS: A total of 40 primary mastectomies (38%) have been performed in the MRI group, compared with 27 (30%) in the non-MRI group (P = .119).There have been more bilateral surgical interventions in the MRI group (14 vs 3 patients; P = .002). The 2 groups did not differ with respect to secondary surgery rates (P = .429). The MRI and non-MRI group were significantly different with respect to age and breast density (P = .003 and P = .002). Yet, both variables seemed not to influence secondary surgery rates (P = .516 and P = .788, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: The implementation of preoperative breast MRI tended to result in more primary mastectomies and bilateral surgeries and did not seem to decrease the secondary surgery rate.