Breast MRI

Dr. Partridge is a Professor of Radiology in the breast imaging section. She earned a Ph.D. in Bioengineering with a focus in medical imaging physics from the joint graduate program at University of California, Berkeley and UC San Francisco. She has over 15 years of experience in development of acquisition sequences and analysis software tools for clinical and translational magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) applications. A large focus of her work has been to investigate dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and diffusion-weighted MRI for improved detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. Results of recent multicenter trials have shown that diffusion-weighted MRI has potential clinical utility to improve the specificity of breast MRI exams and monitor response to breast cancer therapy. As a professor in radiology, her background is in medical imaging physics with over 15 years of experience in development of image acquisition sequences and analysis software tools for clinical and translational breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) applications. She is an active member in the ECOG-ACRIN cooperative group breast committee and have served as chair/co-chair of two national multi-institutional breast DWI focused clinical trials (ACRIN 6702 and 6698). Her quantitative breast imaging laboratory at UW performed centralized analysis of breast tumor ADC measures for the ACRIN 6702 trial and is working to further develop and standardize this important diagnostic biomarker for clinical implementation. Ritse Mann MD, PhD, obtained his medical degree at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands in 2004. In 2005 he started a PhD project to the value of breast MRI in invasive lobular carcinoma at the Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, where he was trained by the late prof. dr. Carla Boetes. From 2008 to 2013 he trained as a resident in radiology, followed by a fellowship in interventional radiology at the same institution, where he now works as breast and interventional radiologist. He is, since 2010, responsible for the clinical breast research at the radiology department of the Radboudumc. The breast imaging research group of the Radboudumc is one of the largest dedicated groups in Europe with large preclinical arms in x-ray development, ultrasound and artificial intelligence. Consequently, dr. Mann's research has a specific focus on the evaluation and implementation of novel breast imaging techniques. He also has a strong personal interest in breast MRI with a focus on the implementation of new sequences for breast screening. Katja Pinker, MD, PhD, EBBI obtained her medical degree at the Medical University of Vienna in 2003. From 2005 until 2010 he was trained as a radiologist at the Department of Radiology at the Medical University of Vienna. Her focus on breast imaging began right after completing medical school in 2003 when she joined the research team of the Division of Molecular and Gender Imaging in Vienna, Austria. She benefitted from clinical research training in world-leading groups, including the Division of Molecular and Gender Imaging and the MR Centre of Excellence in the Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, the Breast Health Center at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Pre-Clinical Imaging Laboratory, which endowed her with broad theoretical and practical knowledge in breast and cancer imaging, with a special focus on advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In 2008, she was awarded a European School of Radiology Visiting Scholarship at the Breast Unit, Barts and The London Cancer Centre, St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London in 2008, and consecutively was received as a research fellow at the London Breast Institute, Princess Grace Hospital, London, UK, in 2009.