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Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers in women nowadays, and medical intervention at an early stage of cancer can significantly improve the prognosis of patients. Breast ultrasound (BUS) is a widely used tool for the early screening of breast cancer in primary care hospitals but it relies heavily on the ability and experience of physicians. Accordingly, we propose a knowledge tensor-based Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS)-score-assisted generalized inference model, which uses the BI-RADS score of senior physicians as the gold standard to construct a knowledge tensor model to infer the benignity and malignancy of breast tumors and axes the diagnostic results against those of junior physicians to provide an aid for breast ultrasound diagnosis. The experimental results showed that the diagnostic AUC of the knowledge tensor constructed using the BI-RADS characteristics labeled by senior radiologists achieved 0.983 (95% confidential interval (CI) = 0.975–0.992) for benign and malignant breast cancer, while the diagnostic performance of the knowledge tensor constructed using the BI-RADS characteristics labeled by junior radiologists was only 0.849 (95% CI = 0.823–0.876). With the knowledge tensor fusion, the AUC is improved to 0.887 (95% CI = 0.864–0.909). Therefore, our proposed knowledge tensor can effectively help reduce the misclassification of BI-RADS characteristics by senior radiologists and, thus, improve the diagnostic performance of breast-ultrasound-assisted diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To retrospectively compare the efficacy and safety of combined radiofrequency ablation and percutaneous ethanol injection (RFA-PEI) with repeat hepatectomy for elderly patients with initial recurrent hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after hepatic surgery. Methods: From January 2009 to June 2015, 105 elderly patients (≥70 years) who underwent RFA-PEI (n = 57) or repeated hepatectomy (n = 48) for recurrent HCC ≤ 5.0 cm were included in the study. The overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were analysed with the Kaplan-Meier method and compared by the log-rank test. Non-tumour-related death, complications and hospital stays were assessed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the prognostic significance of the variables in predicting the OS and RFS. Results: OS rates were 78.2%, 40.8% and 36.7% at 1, 3 and 5 years after RFA-PEI and 76.3%, 52.5% and 42.6% after repeat hepatectomy, respectively (p = 0.413). Correspondingly, the 1-, 3- and 5-year RFS rates after RFA-PEI and repeat hepatectomy were 69.5%, 37.8%, 33.1% and 73.1%, 49.7%, 40.7%, respectively (p = 0.465). Non-tumour-related deaths in the RFA-PEI group (2/57) were significantly fewer than those in the repeat hepatectomy group (10/48) (p = 0.016). RFA-PEI was superior to repeat hepatectomy regarding the major complication rates and length of in-hospital stay (both p < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that the tumour number was the significant prognostic factor for the OS (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.961, 95% CI = 1.043-3.686, p = 0.037) and RFS (HR = 1.866, 95% CI = 1.064-3.274, p = 0.030). Conclusion: RFA-PEI provides comparable OS and RFS to repeat hepatectomy for elderly patients with small recurrent HCC after hepatectomy but with fewer non-tumour-related deaths, major complications and shorter hospital stays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the values of color Doppler and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the identification of cervical lymph node micrometastasis of tongue cancer., Methods: Totally 96 cases of tongue cancer with impalpable neck lymph node was examined with color Doppler and MRI within one week before surgery. Chi-square test was used to assess if the presence of regional lymph node micrometastasis, histopathological analysis as a golden standard lymph node micrometastasis., Results: For the diagnosis of cervical lymph node micrometastasis, color Doppler was significantly better than MRI in sensitivity (72.5% vs 50.0%, P = 0.039) and the accuracy (78.1% vs 64.6%, P = 0.038), but no significant difference in the specificity (82.1% vs 75.0%, P = 0.357), the positive predictive value (74.4% vs 58.8%, P = 0.159) and the negative predictive value (80.7% vs 67.7%, P = 0.108)., Conclusion: Color Doppler is better than MRI in the sensitivity and accuracy for the diagnosis of cervical lymph node micrometastasis of tongue cancer.

Aim: To verify whether arterial-phase contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) of tumor parenchymal tissue is useful for evaluation of anti-angiogenesis agents., Methods: Rabbits with liver tumor were subjected to CEUS, and images of the nodular maximal diameter in vascular phase were recorded. Image analysis was performed to plot the time intensity curve (TIC) at the tumor parenchyma, which set the diameter of the region of interest of intensity measurement. The TIC was calculated to obtain the time to peak intensity (TPI) and the magnitude of PI. Rabbits were randomly assigned to a treatment group with sorafenib and a control group. Two weeks later, the same ultrasound examination was repeated followed by pathological testing to assess the effect of sorafenib on the liver tumor., Results: In four rabbits in the treatment group, the rate of change of tumor size was decreased compared with that of the control (the rate 2.3 vs 7.9, P = 0.02). The TPI of the treatment group elongated significantly (the rate 3.1 vs 1.1, P = 0.07 for SonoVue, 2.0 vs 0.88, P = 0.09 for Sonazoid). The magnitude of PI showed no significant changes. In pathological examination, capillary diameters in the treatment group were significantly smaller than those in the control group (26.4 vs 42.8 μm, P = 0.013)., Conclusion: Analysis of the TIC in the arterial phase of tumor tissue could evaluate the efficacy of anti-angiogenesis drug treatment in liver tumor.