The comparison between young and old patients and the prognostic roles of magnetic resonance imaging-related parameter characteristics in young patients-a retrospective cohort study

Background: Breast dynamic enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. However, it is unclear whether the characteristics of breast dynamic enhancement MRI-related parameters in young breast cancer patients are specific. The present study was to study the dynamic enhancement of MRI-related parameter characteristics and its correlation with clinical features in young breast cancer patients.

Methods: A total of 196 breast cancer patients admitted to the People's Hospital of Zhaoyuan City from January 2017 to December 2017 were retrospectively collected, and the patients were divided into a young breast cancer group (n=56) and a control group (n=140) according to whether the patient age limit of <40 years old. All patients underwent breast dynamic enhanced MRI and were followed up for 5 years to observe whether there was recurrence or metastasis. We compared the differences of breast dynamic enhanced MRI-related parameters between the 2 groups, and then analyzed the correlation between breast dynamic enhancement MRI-related parameters and clinical features in young breast cancer patients.

Results: Compared with the control group, the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of the young breast cancer group was significantly reduced (0.84±0.13 vs. 0.93±0.14 ×10^-3 mm²/s, P<0.001); the proportion of patients with non-mass enhancement was significantly increased in the young breast cancer group (25.00% vs. 8.57%, P=0.002). The ADC was significantly positively correlated with age (r=0.226, P=0.001) and negatively correlated with the maximum diameter of the tumor (r=-0.199, P=0.005). The ADC was shown to be valuable in predicting the absence of lymph node metastasis in the young breast cancer patients, and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.817 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.702-0.932, P<0.001]. The ADC was shown to be valuable in predicting the absence of recurrence or metastasis in the young breast cancer patients, and the AUC was 0.784 (95% CI: 0.630-0.937, P=0.007). The rates of lymph node metastasis and recurrence at 5 years were significantly increased in young breast cancer patients with non-mass enhancement (P<0.05).

Conclusions: The present study provides a reference for further evaluation of the characteristics of young breast cancer patients.