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.
Lay abstract Early detection is important for successful intervention in breast cancer. We studied the potential role of quantitative MRI (qMRI) using T1/T2 ratios to differentiate benign from malignant breast lesions. Sixty nine women with breast lesions were scanned with qMRI. Elevated ratios were observed for biopsy-proven malignant lesions and for malignant lesions that were treated prior to qMRI with chemotherapy and/or radiation, as compared with benign lesions. With further studies, this approach could provide valuable information concerning tissue properties in addition to established breast imaging sequences and be an additional diagnostic tool.