Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed malignancy in the United States.
It rates second to lung cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths in women. The recent interest in MRI of the breast follows reports 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 MRI can successfully image the dense breast. However, the specificity with which contrast MRI distinguishes carcinoma and benign breast disease has been only moderate. Specificity improves if dynamic imaging is performed, measuring the rate of enhancement in the first two minutes following contrast injection.