The aim of this study is to determine the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance imaging in the diagnosis of local recurrence of breast cancer. From 1991 to 1994, 61 women were studied prospectively using magnetic resonance imaging. All examinations were made on a 1.5 Testa machine with T1 weighted images and after gadolium-dota injection and dynamic images (T1 weighted sequences every 47 seconds during injection of a gadolinium-dota bolus). All the pre-injection, images in the dynamic series were subtracted from the images after injection. A surgical biopsy was obtained in 39 patients yielding a diagnosis of local recurrence (n = 28) or a benign lesion (n = 11). Among the 28 local recurrences, pathology examination reported invasive cancer in 22 and intra-ductal carcinoma in 6. In 22 patients with normal magnetic resonance imaging, follow-up examinations were performed every 6 months. There were no local recurrences within a delay of 6 to 36 months. Twenty-six of the 28 patients with a local recurrence, cystosteatonecrosis and surgery scar tissue less than 6 months old showed contrast uptake 1 min and 34 s after gadolinium injection during the dynamic sequence. This product uptake yielded nodular images within the invasive carcinomas and linear images in the intraductal cancers. In all cases, it is easier to visualize this contrast uptake in subtraction images. In conclusion, magnetic resonance imaging is a simple reliable method for the diagnosis of local recurrence of breast cancer.