What is the role of MRI in breast cancer screening?

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MRI's role in breast cancer screening is to be used where it adds meaningful benefit without causing undue harm. It is highly sensitive and can detect cancers that mammography might miss, which makes it valuable for certain women. Because of the higher rate of false positives, greater cost, and limited availability, it is not used as routine screening for all women. Instead, MRI is recommended for women at high lifetime risk (such as BRCA mutation carriers or those with strong family history) as an adjunct to mammography, often on an annual basis. It is also used for problem-solving when mammography or ultrasound findings are inconclusive, helping to characterize a lesion, assess disease extent, or guide biopsy. So the best answer reflects that MRI plays a targeted role for high-risk individuals and for clarifying unclear imaging, rather than serving as routine screening for the average-risk population.