A new magnetic resonance imaging procedure can detect very early breast cancer in mice, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a precursor to invasive cancer. Some of the tumors detected were less than 300 microns in diameter, the smallest cancers ever detected by MRI. The technique is helping researchers study the natural history of DCIS in order to understand which tumors will become invasive cancers and require surgery, and which tumors will not.
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