Do you need an MRI for breast cancer?

I stole some of this from Susan Love's blog. That's my disclaimer. But she has the best blog and by far the best info and is to be trusted.

MRI is often ordered before surgery for breast cancer. Good idea?
Maybe not according to a new study.

The MRI may not be the best idea after all.

Here is the conclusion (stolen right off of Dr. Love's blog)

So what is the conclusion: There is no evidence that having a preoperative MRI is useful in planning surgery, decreasing local recurrence by finding multifocal disease or preventing second cancers by finding lesions in the opposite breast. And it increases the amount of surgery, delays the definitive treatment, and doubled the rate of unnecessary mastectomies. We have very good data on breast conservation done without the benefit of preoperative MRI showing excellent results compared to mastectomy and should not be seduced by expensive pretty pictures that have been shown to make no difference in cancer outcomes.

Wow! Powerful stuff. More is not always better. In this case MRI may lead you right into an uneeded mastectomy.