Has anyone had an MRI miss their cancer?

Pre-surgical MRI (with and without contrast, done at a breast only imaging facility) missed my axillary half centimeter tumor, but did see the 2cm tumor in the breast. So I batted .500

Edited to add:  The 2cm tumor was palpable but missed by mammogram, plainly visible on ultrasound.  Imaging is not perfect and this is often why different modes are employed before biopsies are done and surgical decisions are made.  Each type of imaging uses a different methodology and may show different, or enhanced, pictures of what is happening - or may not see things.  That is why diagnosis is made by biopsy, and final pathology info comes after surgery.  I have a personal history of imaging not showing issues - it is one of the reasons I did not opt for breast conserving surgery.

Hello Mods

If possible please elaborate on "the question of too many MRIs being a risk factor, as with X-rays,".

I thought MRI's did not use radiation of any type and were risk free.

Thanks

Bounce

Oops!, Thanks Bounce and Jenlee for your question.

We confused MRI's with CT's.

Our bad! We've edited our post.

Best wishes to you all,

The mods.

The literature from the imaging center I go to says that MRI is sensitive starting at 4-5mm, which explains why the pre-op MRIs I had (breast and chest, with and without contrast) missed the 1.5mm micromet in one of my sentinel nodes.

I did. I had two primary tumors in the same breast. One of them was invasive ductal carcinoma. The other was DCIS. The DCIS tumor showed up on the mammogram but not the MRI. This was in May 2013. The breast surgeon and radiologist thought that the DCIS must have been benign, since MRIs are supposed to have higher specificity than mammograms and ultrasounds. They also didn't trust the results of the mammogram because I have very dense breasts (I was 23 at the time).

Anyway, I did 8 rounds of chemo, and did a post-chemo breast MRI in October 2013. The breast surgeon and radiologist could not see the IDC tumor. Since I was planning to have a lumpectomy, my surgeon wanted to do a mammogram to see if I could do a wire-guided lumpectomy. The mammogram did not find any signs of the invasive ductal carcinoma, but it did find linear calcifications which are indicative of DCIS. One week later, I had a stereotatctic biopsy. And the results came back as DCIS.

We asked my breast surgeon how did the mammogram catch the DCIS, and not the breast MRIs? She said grade 2 DCIS tumors can be hard to detect with breast MRIs. Also, she said the DCIS could have not been large enough to be detected by the MRI.

Someone above mentioned "parenchymal enhancement". This appears to be the technical term for the MRI findings discussed in the following news article called: "MRI Might Predict Breast Cancer Risk in Some Women"

Women at high risk of breast cancer often have routine MRI scans to try to detect any tumors early. Now a new study hints the scans might also predict which women are most likely to develop cancer in the near future.

I did -- after one lesion had been found, but when they were checking both breasts to see if there was anything else going on. But it was clearly the fault of an inexperienced local imaging center/staff because it was picked up on a better MRI when I went for a second opinion. The whole experience is detailed on my bio page. Just be sure you go to a very reputable medical institution that preferably specializes in breast cancer -- not some local place that just bought a breast MRI machine and has techs who don't know what they don't know.

I also just read a post on another thread about the dye contrast possibly being more of a problem than previously believed -- something about it accumulating in our heads. Sorry, I didn't note the thread, but you can probably search for it here with "MRI contrast dye," look up the research, and ask your onc or BS. (((Hugs))) Deanna

They use the contrast to watch the uptake of the area. That can help determine a bad lesion from a harmless one. I've had quite a few MRI's and while the contrast can be hard on your kidneys, I don't refuse it. I have healthy kidneys tho and just drink a ton of water after to flush everything out.