A new study from Johns Hopkins University has found that, despite the medical evidence showing that an MRI exam can help detect early malignancies and possibly lead to the quick detection and removal of breast cancer, 42 percent of women with a high risk of developing breast cancer object to taking the free exam.
The reasons given by the 512 women who refused treatment during the study, which offered the exam to 1,215 women and will have its results published in January’’s issue of Radiology, varied from a fear of claustrophobia brought on by the machine that conducts the test to a hesitation to be injected with a "contrast medium" needed for the exam.
However, the study also found that a number of women had refused the exam because of costs that must be incurred in order to get to and from the hospital to receive the free exam.
"Given that MRI is promoted as a very sensitive test to identify early breast cancer, we were surprised that barely half of women at increased risk for breast cancer would undergo MRI even when offered at no cost," said Dr. Wendie A. Berg, a breast imaging specialist at Johns Hopkins and the author of the study.
For women who are holding back on receiving an MRI exam that could potentially save their lives because of costs associated with traveling to an exam location instead other fear associated with the exam, payday loans may be able to cover the transportation costs in order to get tested.
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