A preliminary study of risk factors of breast cancer and the usefulness of breast MRI as an addition to mammography in detecting breast cancer in high risk women

The risk factors of breast cancer among women,such as genetic,family history and lifestyle factors,can be divided into high-,intermediate- and average-risk. determining these risk factors may actually help in preventing breast cancer occurrence. besides that,screening of breast cancer which include mammography,can be done in promoting early breast cancer detection. breast magnetic resonance imaging (mri) has been recommended as a supplemental screening tool in high risk women. the aim of this study was to identify the significant risk factor of breast cancer among women and also to determine the usefulness of breast mri as an addition to mammography in detection of breast cancer in high risk women. this retrospective cohort study design was conducted using patients’ data taken from those who underwent mammography for screening or diagnostic purposes in advanced medical and dental institute,universiti sains malaysia,from 2007 until 2015. data from 289 subjects were successfully retrieved and analysed based on their risk factors of breast cancer. meanwhile,data from 120 subjects who had high risks and underwent both mammography and breast mri were further analysed. there were two significant risk factors of breast cancer seen among the study population: family history of breast cancer (p-value=0.012) and previous history of breast or ovarian cancer (p-value <0.001). breast mri demonstrated high sensitivity (90%) while mammography demonstrated high specificity (80%) in detection of breast cancer in all 120 subjects. the number of cases of breast cancer detection using breast mri [46 (38.3%)] was higher compared to mammography [24 (20.0%)]. however,breast mri was found to be non-significant as an adjunct tool to mammography in detecting breast cancer in high risk women (p-value=0.189). a comprehensive screening guideline and surveillance of women at high risk is indeed useful and should be implemented to increase cancer detection rate at early stage. © 2016 penerbit utm press. all rights reserved.