Contrast-enhanced mammography preferred over MRI for breast cancer screening for those emphasizing claustrophobia

The main objective of this study was to guide the implementation of supplemental breast screening by assessing patient preferences for CEM versus MRI using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology.

Researchers contacted 579 women. These women had CEM screening and MRI both and were emailed an invitation for completing online survey developed using an AHP-based model.

The study results are:

• Complete responses were received from 222 women constituting 38 %.
• 157 women constituting 70 % prefer CEM to MRI.
• Breast positioning was the most important criterion for 74 respondents, with claustrophobia, intravenous line placement, and overall stress most important for 38, 37, and 39 women constituting 17.1%, 16.7%, and 17.6%, respectively, and noise level, contrast injection, and indifference being emphasized least frequently at 10, 4.5%, 11, 5.0%, and 13, 5.9% women respectively.
• CEM preference was most prevalent for respondents emphasizing claustrophobia.
• CEM preference was the least prevalent for respondents emphasizing breast positioning.

Concluding further, they said, AHP-based modelling revealed strong patient preferences for CEM over MRI, with claustrophobia favoring preference for CEM and breast positioning for MRI.

The results of this study can help guide the implementation of screening CEM and MRI.

Further reading:

https://www.jacr.org/article/S1546-1440(23)00421-0/pdf