“Breast MRIs have been increasing over the last 20 years. More women are using it for screening, but also more women are using it for diagnostic purposes. 10 years ago, we published this paper that was looking at why women were having breast MRI and sort of the staging and getting prepared for surgery was a high proportion. I don't quite remember, but maybe like 40%. It's my understanding that at that time, 10 years ago, NCCN guidelines were like, you can use this test, but if you're suspecting it's cancer, you should be going for a biopsy. You shouldn't be using this test to further define tumors. But I think that some practitioners have really incorporated it in terms of being able to really understand the tumor better, so that the surgery is better.”

“Women who did receive a preoperative breast MRI had higher reports of decision quality compared to women who didn't get a breast MRI and it's, as we say, statistically significantly different. We hypothesize that maybe this is happening because if you get this other test, maybe your doctor's just talking to you a little bit about what's going on with you. Maybe that additional conversation, maybe you understand something better, and it makes you feel better.”

“What's interesting in our results is that when we look at the group of women who have non-dense breasts and we look at the group of women who have dense breasts, the results are a little bit different. They're not statistically significantly different. They're a little bit different. When we look at women who have dense breasts and the difference between those who received a breast MRI and those who didn't, their responses on decision quality are pretty similar. When we look at women who have non-dense breasts, the women who had a preoperative MRI, their responses, or their reflection on decision quality is a little bit higher than those who didn't get a breast MRI.”