MRI technologist Stephanie Grandestaff and the Breast Care Clinic’s Nancy Frericks test the setup of the new Aurora Breast MRI System, which recently went into service at Hulston Cancer Center.
The physicians and staff at the Breast Care Clinic now have a new tool to help them care for women diagnosed with breast cancer. Earlier this month, they began using the newly installed Aurora 1.5T Dedicated Breast MRI System.
The Aurora is the only MRI made specifically for imaging breasts, and it is the only system cleared by the FDA specifically for this purpose. For the 23,000 women screened for breast cancer at the clinic each year, the presence of the Aurora – the only one in the area – means that if cancer is found the physicians will be able to identify it and monitor it more accurately than ever before.
“The Aurora offers 3D imaging, and can routinely find a tumor as small as 2 mm in size,” says Susan Smith, director of the Breast Care Clinic. “This is significantly smaller than what you routinely find using other MRI systems.”
The Aurora will be used primarily to help stage patients who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, and to screen those at high-risk for the disease.
MRI is used following a positive breast biopsy but prior to surgery. “We want to look closely at the other breast and check it for cancer as well,” says Smith. “Most patients will have multiple MRIs – in addition to pre-surgery appointments, we bring them back in to see what their therapy has achieved.”
Breast Care Clinic staff will also use the Aurora as a screening tool for people with a high risk of breast cancer – especially those with a strong family history of the disease. New screening guidelines for women with breast implants also require an MRI every third year, with mammograms in intervening years.
Prior to the Aurora, patients who needed a breast MRI were scanned at The Martin Center, on a traditional MRI with a dedicated breast coil. The Aurora offers enhanced patient comfort and quicker scan times on a machine with software written specifically to better image breast tissue. “We’re committed to having the most advanced care available for our patients,” Smith says.
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