Detecting cancer in women with dense breasts: MRI?

YES, I HAVE THE SAME THING. BEFORE I JUST HAD SCATTERED FIBROGLANDER, RECENTLY I NOW HAVE HETROGENOUS DENSITY. THEY TOLD ME AFTER CT AND MAMMOGRAM EVERYTHING IS GOOD. I READ THE REPORT NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT HETROGENOUS DENSITY. I WAS UPSET. I WANT AMRI. PRIMARY DOCTOR WHERE I LIVE ARE VERY YOUNG DOCTORS, NOT EXPERIENCED ENOUGH. HOWEVER, I MADE APPOINTMENT IN BOSTON BREAST CANCER CENTER. MY LEFT BREAST FELT A LITTLE LUMP, AFTER FOUR WEEKS IT DISAPPEAR. NOW THE OTHER DAY FOUND A LUMP ARMPIT SOME PAIN AND RADIANT DOWN MY ARM.

YOU NEED TO CALL MAKE THAT APPT. CT OR MRI IS MORE ACCURATE, THAN 3D MAMMOGRAM

Yes, please do an ultrasound and/or MRI follow up!!! I was not privy enough to know to ask for this when they told me I had dense breast tissue. I went in for a breast lift and the cancer reared its ugly head! Mammogram prior to the lift showed nothing due to the dense breast tissue is what I was told. This year I was diagnosed with DCIS invasive and noninvasive.

I now tell women, when they say you have dense breast tissue, request the MRI or ultrasound. Both will provide better imaging of those with dense breast tissue.

I'd had mammogram for years. Every year my mammogram said that there was no evidence of cancer in my breasts and that my breasts were dense. When I felt the pain, I asked for ultra sound but my request was denied by a very young doctor. The year after I felt a small lump and was scheduled for a mammogram. Again it found no evidence of abnormality. But because the lump was palpable, the radiologist got me an ultrasound right after, then the needle biopsy, then the excisional biopsy. It turned out to be DCIS and invasive DCI. Now I tell all women I know to do self exam and request MRI. Most likely insurance would deny MRI unless you are in risk group!

Definitely get the MRI. I had a lump which was diagnosed after mammogram as lobular cancer, stage 1. Just one lump. The recommendation was a lumpectomy. Then my doctor decided, just to be sure, I should get an MRI guided biposy. They found a second lump in my breast, no place near the first one, which would have been completely missed in a lumpectomy. So I would unknowingly still be carrying around a cancerous, growing tumor, had I not had the MRI.

I had a mastectomy, and I'm about to start radiation, just to be cautious. I'm so grateful they "leaned in" to my diagnosis. Otherwise I would've felt initially better, but the follow up in a year would have been pretty grim. Use whatever tools you can to get it right the first time. Good luck!

I have a mammogram alternating with an MRI every six months. Is that sufficient or should I ask for an ultrasound every six months as well?

I have dense breasts and calcification in both. I had a lumpectomy on 1/27/2022 (11 mm, 95% estrogen positive). I cannot, so far, get anyone to okay anything but a mammogram. How do you get an MRI if your doctor won't order it. My onco score was 29, which means that I have a 36% chance of a recurrence if I don't take the A.I. pills, which I cannot tolerate. (If I did take them---or could---it would decline to 18%). I have asked for the Signaterra test and was told I was not bad enough for that and that it is not universally accepted as accurate by physicians. How does one "get" an MRI if their doctor won't order it? My Illinois doctor would not order ANYTHING. I did not get an oncotype after my surgery and when my surgeon suggested a ki67, he would not order that, either. I now have an Iowa City doctor who barely looks at me and a Texas doctor who just ordered a CT scan with contrast because my live enzymes have gone way high. It is so frustrating not to be able to have better supervision of whether there is (possibly) a recurrence. It took me 17 months to get the oncotype, for Pete's sake, and that is supposed to be used to plan your treatment. My Illinois oncologist (who is no longer my Dr.) simply dismissed my December of 2021 request for one, saying, "You don't need one." When it came back as 29 because my Texas doctor (we winter there) did order it from the saved tumor, he told me that, had I been his patient at the outset, I would have had 3 bouts of chemo. As it is, the only thing that is hopefully keeping me from having a recurrence are the 33 radiation sessions I voluntarily underwent, even after Iowa City told me that, had I been their patient, they would not have radiated me at all. When I asked "Why not?" (I was scheduled to start the treatments in 3 days) he said, "Because you're a woman in your 70s." Now that I have learned, the hard way, that I cannot tolerate the A.I. drugs, I'm glad I went ahead and had the radiation and now I feel it is about the only thing protecting me.

I had my annual mammogram beginning of May. Mammogram showed nothing ut made note of my dense breasts and recommended MRI. I do have family history of maternal grandmother having breast cancer, radical mastectomies,then bone cancer and she died. I also am Braca positive (as now assume my grandmother must have been). My primary physician sent me a message asking about ordering MRI. I said, yes. MRI showed a mass. Also then had ultrasound which showed nothing. Now scheduled for MRI guided biopsy next Monday.

YES, YOU ARE AT A HIGHER RISK, GLAD YOUR PRIMARY DOCTOR ORDERED MRI. I HAVE HEARD SOMETIMES CT DOESN'T SHOW ANYTHING BUT MRI USUALLY DOES. WISH YOU WELL

Did you get an MRI? I hope everything turns out well for you. Hugs.