Contrast-enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is becoming more prevalent among patients newly diagnosed with breast cancer, aimed at assessing the extent of the disease prior to surgical intervention (1-3).
When breast MRI reveals a greater extent of disease compared to other imaging methods, and breast-conserving surgery (BCS) remains feasible, the objective is to ensure the complete surgical excision of the pathological area with clear margins.
In some circumstances, employing MRI guidance to delineate either all or part of the affected area prior to surgery, without formal tissue sampling, is a viable option in patients with newly diagnosed malignancy. The clinical team may choose the bracketing option when there is a clearly abnormal area on MRI requiring excision, and additional biopsies will not significantly alter patient management. This is particularly applicable when the presumed pathological region is large, mandating multiple biopsies. Given the associated complication rate of MRI-guided vacuum biopsies (4-5) and the potential for unwarranted delays in definitive surgery (6-7), this practice could offer advantages to a specific subset of patients.
The existing literature on MRI-guided localization is limited and primarily emphasizes individual lesions that present technical difficulties for biopsy (8-9). To the best of our knowledge, the effectiveness of the bracketing method has not been thoroughly explored in the current research.