ECR Meeting, CEM/MRI Reader Study
European Congress of Radiology
DenseBreast-info.org/Europe will be attending ECR2025, (Feb 28 – March 2) in Vienna. Both DBI’s European Liaison Dr. Athina Vourtsis, and Education Coordinator Cheryl Cruwys, will be on hand. Dr. Athina Vourtsis’ lectures include a workshop session on 28 February, 14.15 – 14.45, “Rethinking breast cancer screening strategies in resource-limited settings.”
Please visit the DBI/Europe team in the Austria Center, Level 1 at the ESR Patient Advisory Group booth.
New Reader Study
A blinded reader study from the University of Vienna compared conspicuity (relative enhancement of a lesion compared to surrounding tissue) of enhancing breast lesions between contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) and contrast-enhanced MRI. The study included 462 suspicious lesions (160 malignant) in 388 women who had both exams.
Results showed:
- MRI lesion conspicuity was better than CEM for both mass and non-mass lesions.
- MRI conspicuity was better than CEM for malignant1 and, especially, benign lesions.
The lower conspicuity of benign lesions on CEM could be beneficial in reducing false positives in clinical practice. The authors concluded that MRI was superior for lesion detection, but that CEM remains a valuable tool, especially when MRI is not available.
1Of the 160 cancers, 2 (1.3%) cancers were not seen on MRI and 24 (15%) did not enhance on CEM, but the authors did not state if any cancers were not seen on CEM after considering low-energy images.