Doctors Catch Cancer Earlier with Special MRI

New MRI machine was used by doctors diagnose breast cancer earlier. Patients lie on their stomach and their breasts are placed in two coils, which focus radio waves and allow for more complete images that give a three-dimensional look inside the breast.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.--Two-hundred thousand women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year in the United States. Mammograms, however, may not be the best way to detect it. Now, there's a new test to help doctors pinpoint and treat breast cancer.

Suzette Lipscomb knows how to get the most out of every moment and she plans to share most of those moments with her little girl, Ava. "I always wanted a little girl, but I was a little afraid that I may pass on some type of tendency toward the disease," Suzette says.

The disease she feared? Breast cancer. Her grandmother beat it and so did she. It wasn't easy though, during her battle she was forced to make a difficult decision. Suzette says, "I was trying to make a decision as to whether or not to remove both my breasts."

Richard Reitherman, a breast radiologist at CAD Imaging Sciences in White Plains, N.Y., used the new cadsciences breast imaging system to help decide which treatment would work best. For the test, patients lie on their stomach with their breasts in two coils, which help focus radio waves for more complete images.

"She and her surgeon know exactly how big the tumor is, so it gives her the best treatment," Dr. Reitherman says. For Suzette it showed her second breast was clear.

A dye injected into the patient helps pinpoint cancer and if chemotherapy treatments are working. In the scan, the red areas are cancer -- cancer that was missed in a mammogram. In fact, 20 percent of women who don't have the cad-sciences MRI will need a second surgery, something Suzette was able to avoid.

"I feel like the luckiest woman alive that not only did I have my cancer caught early enough that I'm alive, but that I was able to have a child," Suzette says.

Not all women are candidates for this cadsciences MRI. It's used for women who have already been diagnosed and need to know a course of action. It's also used for women who are high risk and have a family history of the disease. The procedure takes about 30 minutes; results are available 15 minutes later.