Werner A. Kaiser Signs in MR-Mammography Werner A. Kaiser Signs in MR-Mammography 123 Werner Alois Kaiser, M.D., M.S. Professor and Chairman Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology Friedrich-Schiller University Hospital Erlanger Allee 101 07740 Jena Germany www.mediteach.de www.uni-jena.de/med/idir
[email protected] Received: 8 May 2007; Corrected: 27 September 2007 ISBN 978-3-540-73292-1 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2007933374 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, wether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broad-casting, reproduction on microfilm or any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in it current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. Springer-Verlag is a part of Springer Science+Business Media springer.com © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008 The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Product liability: the publishers cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information about dosage and application contained in this book. In every individual case the user must check such information by consulting the relevant literature. Editor: Dr. Ute Heilmann, Heidelberg, Germany Desk Editor: Wilma McHugh, Heidelberg, Germany Reproduction, typesetting and production: LE-TEX Jelonek, Schmidt & Vöckler GbR, Leipzig, Germany Cover design: Frido Steinen-Broo, eStudio, Calamar, Spain Printed on acid-free paper 21/3180/YL 5 4 3 2 1 0 SPIN 12078301 Preface A teacher of mine once said, “If we had a diagnostic method that enabled us to detect and remove all breast cancers 5 to 10 mm in size, we could practically eliminate breast cancer deaths.” Large screening studies in Scandinavia and other countries have documented the truth of this statement. The 20-year survival rate is very high (over 95%) when the initial tumor size is less than 1 cm. We are faced with a major medical problem. Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women, and its incidence and prevalence have been steadily rising in recent decades. It commonly affects young women and the mothers of small children – a segment of the population that “ought not to die.” The medical problem becomes even more tragic when we consider the relatively slow growth rates of most breast carcinomas. As a rule, breast cancers are very slow-growing tumors that take years or decades to reach a size of 1 cm. Nature has actually given us a very large time window for detecting and treating breast cancer. This is quite different from pancreatic cancer or glioblastoma, where almost all patients die within a year after diagnosis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the breast, known also as magnetic reso