Usefulness of magnetic resonance imaging in benign and malignant breast lesions: a pictorial review

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can play a role in the early detection of breast cancer or recurrent disease in cases when mammograms are not helpful. It is reported that malignant lesions enhance significantly following contrast injection while benign lesions show little or no enhancement. MRI has been shown to detect small breast lesions with sensitivity greater than mammography and can successfully image the dense young breast.

We would like to highlight a number of interesting cases of benign and malignant breast lesions detected with MRI in our tertiary referral centre, including intracapsular and extracapsular implant rupture, silicon leak, fibroadenoma versus fibrosarcoma and a case of extensive fat necrosis. We would also like to demonstrate the usefulness of MRI in the preoperative assessment of patients with multifocal lobular and ductal carcinoma as well as postoperative surgical change and axillary node involvement. In all our cases, MRI was a valuable adjunct in the diagnoses and subsequent management of patients with breast disease.