MRI can detect cancer in the contralateral breast that is missed by mammography and clinical examination at the time of the initial breast-cancer diagnosis. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00058058 [ClinicalTrials.gov].).

Purpose:To investigate whether qualitative magnetic resonance (MR) imaging assessments of background parenchymal enhancement (BPE), amount of fibroglandular tissue (FGT), and mammographic density are associated with risk of developing breast cancer in women who are at high risk. Materials and Methods:In this institutional review board-approved HIPAA-compliant retrospective study, all screening breast MR images obtained from January 2006 to December 2011 in women aged 18 years or older and at high risk for but without a history of breast cancer were identified. Women in whom breast cancer was diagnosed after index MR imaging comprised the cancer cohort, and one-to-one matching (age and BRCA status) of each woman with breast cancer to a control subject was performed by using MR images obtained in women who did not develop breast cancer with follow-up time maximized. Amount of BPE, BPE pattern (peripheral vs central), amount of FGT at MR imaging, and mammographic density were assessed on index images. Imaging features were compared between cancer and control cohorts by using conditional logistic regression. Results:Twenty-three women at high risk (mean age, 47 years 6 10 [standard deviation]; six women had BRCA mutations) with no history of breast cancer underwent screening breast MR imaging; in these women, a diagnosis of breast cancer (invasive, n = 12; in situ, n = 11) was made during the follow-up interval. Women with mild, moderate, or marked BPE were nine times more likely to receive a diagnosis of breast cancer during the follow-up interval than were those with minimal BPE (P = .007; odds ratio = 9.0; 95% confidence interval: 1.1, 71.0). BPE pattern, MR imaging amount of FGT, and mammographic density were not significantly different between the cohorts (P = .5, P = .5, and P = .4, respectively). Conclusion:Greater BPE was associated with a higher probability of developing breast cancer in women at high risk for cancer and warrants further study.q RSNA, 2015

BACKGROUND Colon carcinoma is a common malignancy that accounts for a substantial share of all cancer‐related morbidity and mortality. However, little is known with regard to general and disease specific quality of life in survivors of colorectal carcinoma, particularly from community‐based samples of cases across stage and survival times from diagnosis. METHODS Subjects with colorectal carcinoma were recruited from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results cancer registry. Subjects completed two self‐administered surveys: the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scales for Colorectal Cancer (FACT‐C) and the Health Utilities Index (HUI) Mark III. RESULTS One hundred seventy‐three respondents (average age: 70.4 years, 71.4% female) completed the survey. In the first 3 years after diagnosis, quality of life was lower and varied substantially among respondents. After 3 years, respondents in all TNM stages of disease except Stage IV reported a relatively uniform and high quality of life. Pain, functional well‐being, and social well‐being were affected most substantially across all stages and times from diagnosis. Low income status was associated with worse outcomes for pain, ambulation, and social and emotional well‐being. Only emotional well‐being scores improved significantly over time in both surveys. CONCLUSIONS Those individuals who achieve a long term remission from colorectal carcinoma may experience a relatively high quality of life, although deficits remain for several areas, particularly in those of low socioeconomic status. Sampling design may have excluded the most severely ill patients. Cancer 2000;88:1294–1303. © 2000 American Cancer Society.

Combinations of BI-RADS lesion descriptors can predict the probability of malignancy for breast MRI masses but not for NMLE. If our model is validated, masses with a low probability of malignancy may be eligible for short-interval follow-up rather than biopsy. Further research focused on predictive features of NMLE is needed.

Purpose: To investigate whether diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures of anisotropy in breast tumors are different from normal breast tissue and can improve the discrimination between benign and malignant lesions. Materials and Methods:The study included 81 women with 105 breast lesions (76 malignant, 29 benign). DTI was performed during breast MRI examinations, and fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were measured for breast lesions and normal tissue in each subject. FA and ADC were compared between cancers, benign lesions, and normal tissue by univariate and multivariate analyses.Results: The FA of carcinomas (mean 6 SD: 0.24 6 0.07) was significantly lower than normal breast tissue in the same subjects (0.29 6 0.07; P < 0.0001). Multiple logistic regression showed that FA and ADC were each independent discriminators of malignancy (P < 0.0001), and that FA improved discrimination between cancer and normal tissue over ADC alone. However, there was no difference in FA between malignant and benign lesions (P ¼ 0.98).Conclusion: Diffusion anisotropy is significantly lower in breast cancers than normal tissue, which may reflect alterations in tissue organization. Our preliminary results suggest that FA adds incremental value over ADC alone for discriminating malignant from normal tissue but does not help with distinguishing benign from malignant lesions.