Can the specificity of MRI breast imaging be improved by fusing 3D MRI volume data sets with FDG PET?

MRI of the breast is an important tool for early detection of breast cancer in women at increased risk for tumor. MRI has a proven track record in identifying tissue abnormalities, but often lacks the ability to characterize this tissue abnormality as benign or malignant, i.e., for certain tissue abnormalities the specificity of MRI is very high, while for others it may be 50% or less. This inability of MRI to differentiate between certain types of tissue abnormalities has lead to our interest in exploring whether the fusion of MRI scans with metabolic imaging (PET) scans can be helpful. 18-FDG PET provides information about the metabolism of the tissue in the breast which in tumors is generally increased. This technique is widely used for detection of other forms of cancer, but has not yet been systematically applied to primary breast cancer, although it has been used to detect local recurrence.