Evaluation of T1/T2 ratios in a pilot study as a potential biomarker of biopsy: proven benign and malignant breast lesions in correlation with histopathological disease stage

Aim: Early breast cancer detection is important for intervention and prognosis. Advances in treatment and outcome require diagnostic tools with highly positive predictive value. Purpose: To study the potential role of quantitative MRI (qMRI) using T1/T2 ratios to differentiate benign from malignant breast lesions. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 69 women with 69 known or suspicious breast lesions were scanned with mixed-turbo spin echo pulse sequence. Patients were grouped according to histopathological assessment of disease stage: untreated malignant tumor, treated malignancy and benign disease. Results & Discussion: Elevated T1/T2 means were observed for biopsy-proven malignant lesions and for malignant lesions treated prior to qMRI with chemotherapy and/or radiation, as compared with benign lesions. The qMRI-obtained T1/T2 ratios correlated with histopathology. Analysis revealed correlation between elevated T1/T2 ratio and disease stage. This could provide valuable complementary information on tissue properties as an additional diagnostic tool

Radiology Case Reports The Shrinking Breast: An Unusual Mammographic Finding of Invasive Lobular Carcinoma

We report two cases of invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast that were initially missed on first mammographic interpretation because of an uncommon, easily overlooked, and unreported imaging presentation. The abnormality in the cases manifested as an apparent decrease in breast glandular tissue volume when compared with the patients ’ previous mammograms, observed as “shrinking ” of the breast on mammography. Invasive lobular carcinoma is considered one of the most difficult subtypes of breast cancer to identify on mammography because the changes that occur are often nonspecific and subtle. Microcalcifications that are usually associated with breast masses on imaging are rarely seen in this subtype of breast cancer. Although magnetic resonance imaging and computer-aided detection have somewhat improved the detection of invasive lobular carcinoma, radiologic and clinical detection remains a challenge