A large-scale prospective observational multicentre study called MIPA, guided by the European Network for Assessment of Imaging in Medicine (EuroAIM), looked at the use of pre-operative MRI in women with breast cancer. This area is known to be controversial and a meta-analyses showed an increase in mastectomy rates in women. However, a survey from the American Society of Breast Surgeons showed 41% of respondents asked for the use of pre-operative MRI in daily practice.

The aims of the MIPA study are:

1. To collect data on women with new breast cancers, not suitable for neoadjuvant therapy, prospectively and systematically, who are diagnosed with a new breast cancer and offered or not offered breast MRI before surgery.
2. To compare the two groups outcomes in terms of surgical and clinical outcomes, in correlation to significant covariates.

The hypotheses in the decision making in breast cancer assessment using MRI fundamentally does not contribute to additional mastectomies compared to conventional imaging, while decreasing the re-excision rates in different population groups. Therefore, it is hoped that this will contribute to particular patients’ management of the disease before surgery who would otherwise not receive a preoperative MRI.

The MIPA study opened in 2014 and closed in 2018, after 7000 patients were enrolled from 36 centres.

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