FAST MRI DYAMOND

Have you recently received a letter from the NHS breast screening programme inviting you to come for your first screening mammogram?

The NHS provides a breast screening service because early detection of breast cancer saves lives.

The NHS screening programme has been using mammograms to detect cancer since 1988… But still, 30 women die of breast cancer every day in the UK.

The FAST MRI DYAMOND study is looking to see if a new form of MRI scan, called FAST MRI, can pick up aggressive cancers even earlier than mammograms can. 

The NHS already uses breast MRI to detect cancers, but only for women who have a very high likelihood of having breast cancer. For these women, MRI detects breast cancers earlier than mammograms and saves more lives.

The FAST MRI DYAMOND study will be the first UK study to offer a FAST MRI scan to women at normal or average risk, aged 50-52. People invited for their first screening mammogram can take part at 4 NHS breast screening services in England. (Bristol, Cheltenham, Swindon, Truro, London (St George’s & King’s College).

Everyone’s breasts are different, and in addition to how breasts look and feel in real life, they also look different on mammograms.

At age 50-52, breasts can look completely white on mammograms. They can also look completely dark. Both appearances are normal, as are all the different combinations of white and dark in between. These differences are called mammographic density or breast density.

The problem is that breast density can make a small cancer difficult to spot on a mammogram. Breast cancers tend to show as white on mammograms, so you can see how much easier a cancer would be to spot on the dark mammogram on the left than on the white mammogram on the right.

Fortunately, however, FAST MRI works well at detecting small cancers for women of all breast densities. The pink arrow highlights what a cancer, that was completely invisible on the mammogram, looks like on FAST MRI.

Breast screening with mammograms already saves around 1,300 lives each year in the UK by finding cancers that are too small to feel or see. 

FAST MRI could find cancers even earlier for women and our research is designed to find out which women would benefit from breast screening with FAST MRI through finding breast cancer even earlier than mammograms.

We want to find breast cancers earlier because:

• finding cancer early makes it more likely that treatment will be successful
• finding cancer early makes it less likely that a mastectomy will be needed
• finding cancer early makes it more likely that the cancer will be cured.

The only way to discover your breast density is to have a mammogram.

The FAST MRI DYAMOND study wishes to offer a FAST MRI scan to 1000 people who all have average breast density. At age 50-52, four out of every 10 women will have average breast density and could join the FAST MRI DYAMOND Study to have a FAST MRI scan. 

We can only find out whether you can join the study if you give us your contact details and let us know you are happy for us to use your mammogram to measure your breast density.

Research is fundamental to improving treatment and care for patients and the public but it is your choice whether you join the study or not.

If you are having your first screening mammogram and would like to learn more about the FAST MRI DYAMOND study, please fill in a FAST MRI DYAMOND consent to be contacted form, either online or at your mammogram appointment. 

This is the web address of the online form. 

If you would like to ask any questions at all, you will find the telephone number for the nurse from your local research team below this video along with the link to the online form.

Thank you for taking the time to watch this film. Thank you for helping us with this research.

Women with “average” breast density and a clear mammogram may be able to have a FAST MRI. To find this out, we are first inviting women to Stage 1 of the DYAMOND study. 

If you agree to take part in Stage 1, we will send your mammogram to the DYAMOND team at the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust so that they can measure your breast density. We won’t send your mammogram to be measured for 10 working days after we receive your consent. This is in case you change your mind about participating. If you do, please let us know. 

The results will then be sent to Warwick Clinical Trials Unit, to be stored. 

If your mammogram is measured as anything other than average breast density, you will be looked after by the screening service, and you won’t be able to take part in this study. This is because we are only inviting people with “average” breast density to have a FAST MRI. If breast density can't be measured due to having breast implants or for other technical reasons, we will unfortunately not be able to invite you to Stage 2.

If your mammogram measurement is in the “average” breast density group, we will look at your mammogram screening results to check if the screening service says you need any further investigations. This is because in this study, we are only inviting people with clear mammograms to have a FAST MRI.

If you do need some further investigations, the screening service will contact you directly. You won’t be able to have the FAST MRI scan as part of this study. Instead, with your consent, we would like to access your screening and medical records to discover the outcome of your investigations. We will do this for up to 3 years after your first mammogram.

If the screening service says your mammogram needs no further investigations and you are in the average breast density group, we will send you information and an invitation to take part in Stage 2 of the study.

Agreeing to take part in Stage 1 does not mean you will automatically have a FAST MRI scan. If the Stage 1 density grading shows you are eligible to take part in Stage 2, you will be invited and can then decide whether to take part or not. 

No, it’s up to you to decide whether to take part. If you do not want a FAST MRI scan or know you cannot have one, then you can let us know you don’t want to take part. Whether or not you choose to take part, be reassured that your clinical care will not be affected. You will still be offered your routine screening mammograms every 3 years until you turn 71.

If you have read the patient information above, or have previously read a leaflet given to you in your breast screening mammogram appointment, you can sign up via the FAST MRI DYAMOND Consent Form.