Role of new imaging modalities of breast cancer recurrence

The study of the breast after surgery has always been a challenge for breast radiologists. In patients with breast cancer surveillance strategies play an important role. The aims of any follow-up are to detect early local recurrence or contralateral breast cancer. The complexity in the interpretation of radiological images causes many post-surgical alterations to be subject to misreading and recognized as malignant lesions. There is currently no consensus on a protocol for imaging the postoperative breast. New imaging modalities, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), ultrasound (US), and positron emission tomography (PET) are changing the way we image the postsurgical breast. The role of functional imaging with nuclear medicine in breast cancer recurrence is well established and continues to expand rapidly.