Plastic Surgery Blog: Breast MRI Best at Tracking Chemo Treatment

Breast cancer treatment has progressed considerable.Tracking effectiveness of chemo treatments after breast cancer diagnosis can be a daunting task. According to recent industry article getting chemotherapy before breast cancer surgery could attribute to the difference between a mastectomy or a breast-conserving lumpectomy, experts stated. And new research shows that getting an MRI while having the first round of chemo can help doctors to forecast quickly if the cancer is expected to respond to the treatment. MRI works more effectively than clinical examination of the tumor, the traditional way to assess how well the chemotherapy is working, said researcher Dr. Nola Hylton, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at the University of California, San Francisco.

Breast Cancer and MRI’s

Although most doctors order an MRI upon completion of all rounds of chemotherapy , Hylton’s team did MRIs before, during and after a chemo cycle, and also upon completion of chemotherapy. “What we are trying to do is fine-tune MRI so it can be a more sensitive measure of whether people are responding [to the chemo],” Hylton said. At point of the process, MRI measurements of tumors were more accurate than a clinical exam, in which the doctor palpates the tumor and doesn’t evaluation to determine whether it is responding to the chemo. Research from the past has found that women who get chemotherapy before their surgery are more apt to be able to have breast-conserving surgery than women given chemo after their surgery. The new study included 216 women, aged 26 to 68, who had invasive breast cancer (stage 2 or 3).The study is set to be published in the June issue of the journal Radiology.

Breast Cancer and Breast Reconstruction

Dr. Seify assist patients with breast reconstruction at many different times of their diagnosis. The most preferred time would be initially upon diagnosis of breast cancer. In these instances Dr. Seify is able to work directly with the medical professional team treating the patient which in many cases includes the oncologist, radiologist, as well as general surgeon. When Dr. Seify discusses his specific breastreconstruction recommendation he is able to incorporate recommendations from the other doctors on the team. Much of the patient success and optimal outcome is as a result of this team approach. Dr. Seify shares with his breast surgery patients including breastaugmentation with breastimplants, breastlift, and breastreduction the importance of consistent and effective for breast cancer screening. This includes breast self-exam for women of all ages.