Relationship Between Shear Wave Elastography Findings and Histologic Prognostic Factors of Invasive Breast Cancer

Abstract

Objective Shear wave elastography (SWE) is an adjunct to grayscale ultrasound examinations for evaluating breast masses. This study aimed to determine the SWE features that correlated with prognostic parameters for breast cancer. Methods Between January 2018 and May 2018, 80 patients who were confirmed to have invasive cancers by core-needle biopsy and who were scheduled for surgery were imaged using B-mode ultrasound and SWE. Measurements were taken from a region of interest positioned over the stiffest part of the peripheral zone and mass. Three measurements were taken, and the average of the mean stiffness value was used for analysis. Results The mean tumor size, elasticity value of tumors, and elasticity of the peripheral zone were 2.9 ± 1.48 cm (range, 0.6–8 cm), 154.8 ± 8.55 kPa (range, 116.25–179 kPa), and 171.34 ± 5.22 kPa (range, 150.95–182.43 kPa), respectively. The types of breast cancer included were invasive ductal carcinoma (n = 71 [88.75%]; 69 invasive ductal carcinoma not otherwise specified, 1 solid papillary carcinoma, and 1 invasive micropapillary carcinoma), invasive lobular carcinoma (n = 2 [2.5%]), mixed invasive ductal and lobular carcinoma (n = 4 [5%]), mucinous carcinoma (n = 2 [2.5%]), and metaplastic cancer (n = 1 [1.25%]). A strong correlation was found between mean elasticity values and tumor grade (P = 0.018) and between mean elasticity values and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) positivity (P = 0.008). There were no significant differences between SWE values and tumor diameter or between histological tumor characteristics and SWE. Conclusions We found that some clinicohistopathologic features of poor prognosis had higher elasticity values than those of favorable prognosis.

Prediction of Invasive Breast Cancer Using Mass Characteristic Frequency and Elasticity in Correlation with Prognostic Histologic Features and Immunohistochemical Biomarkers

“…Although the presence of cluster, coarse or large calcifications in benign breast masses can induce apparent high stiffness in benign lesions resulting in the misdiagnosis of malignancy (Gregory et al 2015), no statistically significant relationship between the elasticity of invasive masses and the presence of calcifications was found in our study. This is in agreement with the study reported in Gemici et al (2020). Interestingly, f mass was found to be significantly correlated with the presence of calcifications.…”

Meme kanserinde strain elastografi ile histopatolojik parametreler arasındaki ilişki

“…However, they showed no significant correlation between PR, ER, HER-2, or Ki-67 proliferation index and SWE stiffness rates. Similarly, other studies have shown a significant correlation between lymph node metastasis, histologic grade, lymphovascular invasion, and sonoelastographic results, but different results for immunohistochemical parameters and sonoelastography have been obtained 12,22,23 .…”

“…Gemici et al showed no correlation between the elastography values obtained using SWE and immunohistochemical parameters or molecular subtyping 22 . In the same study, it was shown that there were significant correlations between SWE stiffness rates and lymphovascular invasion, lymph node metastasis, and histological grade.…”

Shear Wave Elastography-Assisted Ultrasound Breast Image Analysis and Identification of Abnormal Data

“…However, in real scenarios, these medical data differ to some extent in terms of light intensity, viewpoint, background, etc. Meanwhile, the quality of medical image annotation relies on the degree of expertise of the annotators, which requires years of accumulated expertise and experience [20]. Provide information, including tumor size, shape, edge, echo pattern, whether there is attenuation behind, and whether there is calcification inside, etc., to provide a basis for finding breast cancer.…”