Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Phenotypes May Provide Additional Information for Risk Stratification for Encapsulated Papillary Carcinoma of the Breast

Wen-Jie Tang; Yun-Shi Liang; Jing Yan; Yue Hu; Mei-Li Sun; Guo-Shun Liu; Xiao-Huan Pan; Xin-Hua Wei; Xin-Qing Jiang; Yuan Guo

doi:10.2147/CMAR.S277980

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Phenotypes May Provide Additional Information for Risk Stratification for Encapsulated Papillary Carcinoma of the Breast

Cancer Manag Res. 2020 Nov 17:12:11751-11760. doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S277980. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Wen-Jie Tang^#¹, Yun-Shi Liang^#², Jing Yan³, Yue Hu⁴, Mei-Li Sun⁵, Guo-Shun Liu¹, Xiao-Huan Pan⁶, Xin-Hua Wei¹, Xin-Qing Jiang¹, Yuan Guo¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510180, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Pathology, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510180, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of MRI, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Department of Ultrasound, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510120, People's Republic of China.
⁵ Department of Radiology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, People's Republic of China.
⁶ Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 510120, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Encapsulated papillary carcinoma (EPC) of the breast is a rare entity. EPC can be underappreciated on percutaneous biopsy, which may require additional procedures if invasion is not recognized preoperatively. We aimed to investigate the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) phenotypes correlated with preoperative pathological risk stratification for clinical guidance.

Materials and methods: The preoperative MRI scans of 30 patients diagnosed with 36 EPCs in multiple centers between August 2015 and February 2020 were reviewed by two breast radiologists. According to the WHO classification published in 2019, EPCs were classified into two pathological subtypes: encapsulated papillary carcinoma and encapsulated papillary carcinoma with invasion. Clinicopathological analysis of the two subtypes and MR feature analysis were performed.

Results: Evaluation of the MRI phenotypes and pathological subtype information revealed that not circumscribed (P=0.04) was more common in EPCs with invasion than in EPCs. There was a significant difference in the age of patients (P=0.05), and the risk increased with age. The maximum diameter of the tumor increased with tumor risk, but there was no significant difference (P=0.36). Nearly half of the EPC with invasion patients showed hyperintensity on T1WI (P=0.19). A total of 63.6% of the EPC with invasion group showed non-mass enhancement surrounding (P=0.85). In addition, 29 patients (96.7%) had no axillary lymph node metastasis, and only one patient with EPC with invasion had axillary lymph node metastasis. Further pathological information analysis of EPCs showed that higher Ki-67 levels were more common in patients with EPCs with invasion (P=0.04). A total of 29 patients (96.7%) had the luminal phenotype, and one patient with EPC with invasion had the Her-2-positive phenotype.

Conclusion: The margin, age and Ki-67 level were the key features for EPC risk stratification. In addition, these MRI signs, including a larger tumor, non-mass enhancement surrounding and axillary lymph node metastasis, may be suggestive of a high-risk stratification. Therefore, MRI phenotypes may provide additional information for the risk stratification of EPCs.

Keywords: breast neoplasms; carcinoma; magnetic resonance imaging; papillary; pathology.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81901711.