The utility of diffusion-weighted imaging for differentiation of phyllodes tumor from fibroadenoma and breast cancer

Jinzhi Fang; Yuzhong Zhang; Ruifeng Li; Lanlan Liang; Juan Yu; Ziqi Hu; Lingling Zhou; Renwei Liu

doi:10.3389/fonc.2023.938189

The utility of diffusion-weighted imaging for differentiation of phyllodes tumor from fibroadenoma and breast cancer

Front Oncol. 2023 Mar 2:13:938189. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.938189. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jinzhi Fang¹, Yuzhong Zhang¹, Ruifeng Li¹, Lanlan Liang^{2

3}, Juan Yu⁴, Ziqi Hu¹, Lingling Zhou¹, Renwei Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Affiliated Longhua People's Hospital, Southern Medical University (Longhua People's Hospital), Shenzhen, China.
² Clinical Medical College of Dali University, Dali, China.
³ Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of Yunnan University, Kunming, China.
⁴ Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Shenzhen University, Health Science Center, Shenzhen Second People's Hospital, Shenzhen, China.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the utility of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values for differentiating breast tumors.

Methods: The medical records of 17 patients with phyllodes tumor [PT; circular regions of interest (ROI-cs) n = 171], 74 patients with fibroadenomas (FAs; ROI-cs, n = 94), and 57 patients with breast cancers (BCs; ROI-cs, n = 104) confirmed by surgical pathology were retrospectively reviewed.

Results: There were significant differences between PTs, FAs, and BCs in ADCmean, ADCmax, and ADCmin values. The cutoff ADCmean for differentiating PTs from FAs was 1.435 × 10^-3 mm²/s, PTs from BCs was 1.100 × 10^-3 mm²/s, and FAs from BCs was 0.925 × 10^-3 mm²/s. There were significant differences between benign PTs, borderline PTs, and malignant PTs in ADCmean, ADCmax, and ADCmin values. The cutoff ADCmean for differentiating benign PTs from borderline PTs was 1.215 × 10^-3 mm²/s, and borderline PTs from malignant PTs was 1.665 × 10^-3 mm²/s.

Conclusion: DWI provides quantitative information that can help distinguish breast tumors.

Keywords: apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC); breast tumors; diffusion-weighted image (DWI); magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); phyllodes tumors; value.