The combination of focal breast edema and adjacent vessel sign to assess the behavior of mass-type invasive ductal carcinoma

• Published in: BMC medical imaging 2024-12, Vol.24 (1), p.332-11
• Main Authors: Hu, Juanjuan, Ke, Junli, Xu, Shufeng, Pei, Lei, Cao, Lulu, Zhou, Huanhao, Zhu, Xisong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adjacent vessel sign; Adult; Aged; Biomarkers; Breast - blood supply; Breast - diagnostic imaging; Breast - pathology; Breast cancer; Breast carcinoma; Breast neoplasms; Breast Neoplasms - complications; Breast Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Cancer therapies; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast - complications; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast - diagnostic imaging; Carcinoma, Ductal, Breast - pathology; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; Dropsy; Edema; Edema - diagnostic imaging; Edema - pathology; Epoxy resins; Estrogen receptors; Estrogens; Female; Humans; Image contrast; Image enhancement; Invasiveness; Lymph nodes; Lymphatic Metastasis - diagnostic imaging; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Medical prognosis; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Grading; Neoplasm Invasiveness; Normal distribution; Prediction models; Prognosis; Retrospective Studies; Skin; Tumors; Vessels
• ISSN: 1471-2342; 1471-2342
• DOI: 10.1186/s12880-024-01518-8

The objective of this study was to investigate the association between focal breast edema (FBE) and adjacent vessel sign (AVS) with tumor size, histologic grade, lymphovascular invasion, axillary lymph node status, Ki-67 index, and molecular subtype in breast cancer. These findings have provided valuable insights into the biological characteristics and prognosis of mass-type invasive ductal carcinoma (M-IDC). We retrospectively included patients with M-IDC between January 2016 and December 2021. FBE was evaluated using T2-weighted sequence. AVS was assessed using maximum-intensity projection images obtained using early dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. The breast peritumor score (BPS) was defined as follows: BPS 1, absence of both edema and AVS; BPS 2, AVS without edema; BPS 3, AVS with peritumoral edema; BPS 4, AVS with prepectoral edema; and BPS 5, AVS with subcutaneous edema. The correlation between different BPS scores and clinicopathological variables was examined using Kendall's tau-b correlation coefficient. The DeLong test was used to compare the performances of three clinicopathological models combined with peritumoral features (FBE, AVS, and BPS) in predicting luminal A-like M-IDC. In 228 patients with M-IDC, BPS was positively correlated with tumor size, histologic grade, lymphovascular invasion, axillary lymph node status, Ki-67 index, and negatively correlated with estrogen receptor expression (all P