Abbreviated MRI Matches Full Protocol in Detecting Breast Cancer in High-Risk Women, Dutch Study Finds

A new study from the Netherlands has found that an abbreviated MRI protocol can detect breast cancer as effectively as a full-length MRI exam in women with BRCA gene mutations—potentially reshaping how high-risk patients are screened.

“Multiple hospitals in the world are already using an abbreviated protocol for MRI breast screening,” said Wendelien Sanderink, a technical physician at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen. “We wanted to assess the diagnostic accuracy of our new abbreviated breast MRI protocol compared to a full diagnostic breast MRI protocol for a select group of high-risk women.”

The results, presented Sunday morning at the RSNA 2025 Annual Meeting, suggest that the shorter exam may provide comparable diagnostic power with substantial time savings and greater patient throughput.

Before 2020, Radboud University Medical Center used a full MRI protocol with an 18-minute scan time that included diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), five T1-weighted sequences (one before and four after contrast), an ultrafast T1 during contrast inflow, and a T2-weighted scan.

In April 2020, the center transitioned to a streamlined version that uses DWI, one pre- and one post-contrast T1-weighted sequence, and an ultrafast T1 scan—cutting the exam time to just 8 minutes.

“The abbreviated protocol saves us approximately 10 minutes per patient and allows us to scan three patients an hour instead of two,” Sanderink said.

The study focused on women with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations—patients considered high risk for breast cancer. Under the Dutch National Breast Cancer Screening Programme, these individuals are eligible for intensive screening regimens, including annual MRI scans between the ages of 25 and 60.

The researchers compared 755 BRCA carriers imaged with the full protocol (between 2012 and 2020) with 628 women who received the abbreviated MRI between 2020 and 2024. The average ages of participants in both groups were similar, around 40 years.

Results showed no statistically significant differences in cancer detection rates or sensitivity between the two approaches. The abbreviated protocol had a slightly higher recall rate (12.6% vs. 9.3%) and a modest decrease in specificity (89% vs. 92.4%). However, Sanderink noted these changes are typical early on.

“When you change to an abbreviated protocol, it’s typical for rates to go up a little bit as radiologists learn to work with and trust the new protocol,” she said. “We’ll watch to see how this rate changes over the years.”

Importantly, the types and sizes of cancers detected were consistent across both protocols. “We didn’t see any difference in tumor diameter and lymph node positivity between the two protocols,” Sanderink noted. “If anything, the cancers detected with the abbreviated protocol are even smaller than those detected with the full protocol.”

One of the most notable findings was the sensitivity rate. The abbreviated MRI protocol achieved a 96.2% sensitivity, compared to 86% for the full protocol.

“We don’t want to be missing cancers,” she said. “Our findings demonstrate that the abbreviated protocol is as good as the full protocol and it’s safe to use.”

With faster scan times and no compromise in diagnostic performance, the findings suggest that abbreviated MRI may be a valuable tool for expanding access to high-quality breast cancer screening—particularly for high-risk women.

As Sanderink emphasized, “It’s a win for patients, radiologists, and the healthcare system.”