CONTRAST-ENHANCED MR-IMAGING AS A PROGNOSTIC INDICATOR OF BREAST-CANCER

Background. Using contrast-enhanced MR imaging in the diagnosis of bre ast cancer may provide additional information not only on tumor extens ion but also on the biological behavior of tumors. Thus certain charac teristics such as tumor angiogenesis and the proliferating activity of the tumor, which have been shown to correlate significantly with prog nosis, are both potentially amenable to analysis by MR imaging. Materi al and Methods. We compared contrast enhancement in 50 malignant breas t tumors at MR imaging to several prognostic factors, such as tumor si ze, lymph-node status, histological grade of malignancy, tumor angioge nesis, and proliferating activity as shown by the mitotic count and PC NA immunoreactivity. Results. There was significant correlation betwee n contrast enhancement at MR imaging of breast cancer and both tumor a ngiogenesis and proliferative cellular activity as shown by PCNA immun oreactivity. Furthermore, there was a correlation between contrast enh ancement and tumor malignancy grade as well as tumor invasiveness. Con clusion: These observations suggest that contrast enhancement at MR im aging may be influenced by factors that have prognostic value. If this assumption is correct, contrast-enhanced MR imaging may become a valu able prognostic tool in the pre-operative evaluation of breast cancers .