Background: This study aims to observe and analyze the effect of diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on the patients with locally advanced breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
Methods: Fifty patients (mean age, 48.7 years) with stage II-III breast cancer who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy and preoperative MRI between 2016 and 2020 were retrospectively evaluated. The associations between preoperative breast MRI findings/clinicopathological features and outcomes of neoadjuvant chemotherapy were assessed.
Results: Clinical stage at baseline (OR: 0.104, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.021-0.516, P = 0.006) and standard apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) change (OR: 9.865, 95% CI 1.024-95.021, P = 0.048) were significant predictive factors of the effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The percentage increase of standard ADC value in pathologic complete response (pCR) group was larger than that in non-pCR group at first time point (P < 0.05). A correlation was observed between the change in standard ADC values and tumor diameter at first follow-up (r: 0.438, P < 0.05).
Conclusions: Our findings support that change in standard ADC values and clinical stage at baseline can predict the effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for patients with breast cancer in early stage.
Keywords: Breast cancer; Neoadjuvant chemotherapy; Pathologic complete response; Standard apparent diffusion coefficient.
© 2021. The Author(s).