Can MRI scan detect breast cancer?

[Blinkingbatshit]

Hi all, just wondering if anyone knows about this as am trying to reassure / calm myself whilst waiting for a breast clinic appointment. GP found multiple lumps in my breasts (I’d only found 1😳!)….they are hopefully just cysts but obv need to be checked out. Earlier this year I had a full ct and an mri scan of my abdomen (so lungs/liver/intestines etc all scanned…pretty much neck to bum!) - would these have picked up anything in the breast? Thanks in advance for any wisdom!!

I had a spine and neck scan and it picked up a tumour on my thyroid I had no idea I had, nor were they looking for it!

MRI scans can 'see' soft tissues that x-rays can't.

Yes. If the area was scanned, there's a possibility that the lumps were picked up and the scans can be referred to by the breast clinic.

I assume so, after I was dIagnosed with Breast cancer, I had a full body MRI to check if it had spread.

@Gingernaut

MRI scans can 'see' soft tissues that x-rays can't.

Yes. If the area was scanned, there's a possibility that the lumps were picked up and the scans can be referred to by the breast clinic.

This isn't always the case I'm afraid. There are many different programmes used in MRI.

Different MRI scans show different types of tissue. The radiologist will protocol a scan according to the referral details the initial doctor gives them. So an MRI for the lungs is different to one for the breast or one for the heart even though the same part of the body is in the scanner. So it depends on what the reasons were you had a scan for earlier in the year.

A CT scan is slightly different in that you can manipulate the data to see tissues differently from just one scan, but again for new or different symptoms a new scan is likely to be requested but your doctor's can discuss this with you and a radiologist if necessary.

You're likely to have an ultrasound initially as this can rule out cysts, especially if you're young, then a maybe a mammogram depending on what they find and what your symptoms are.

These are often carried out at a one stop clinic where you also talk to a specialist breast care nurse or radiographer and sometimes a consultant. So you get a lot of the answers on that day.

Hope all is ok for you

Thanks, the mri & ct were supposedly to rule out anything ‘concerning’ as I had lost a lot of weight quickly - this is why I’m holding onto the hope they might have checked this too…. They did two sets of full bloods a month apart and found nothing there either. Weight loss was pinned on a gastric issue… Thanks for your thoughts.