Differential diagnosis between malignant and benign breast lesions using single-voxel proton MRS: a meta-analysis

• Published in: Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology 2014-06, Vol.140 (6), p.993-1001
• Main Authors: Cen, Dongzhi, Xu, Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Breast - pathology; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - diagnosis; Breasts; Cancer Research; Diagnosis, Differential; Female; Hematology; Humans; Internal Medicine; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy - methods; Medical diagnosis; Medical imaging; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Meta-analysis; Oncology; Original Article - Clinical Oncology; Precancerous Conditions - diagnosis; Prognosis; Protons; Spectrum analysis
• ISSN: 0171-5216; 1432-1335
• DOI: 10.1007/s00432-014-1605-7

Objectives We aim to investigate the diagnostic capability of single-voxel proton MR spectroscopy (MRS) for benign/malignant discrimination of focal breast lesions with a meta-analysis. Materials and methods The meta-analysis included a total of 750 malignant breast lesions and 419 benign breast lesions from eighteen studies. Results The pooled sensitivity and specificity of MRS were 0.71 (95 % CI 0.68–0.74) and 0.85 (95 % CI 0.81–0.88), respectively. The positive likelihood ratio and negative LR were 4.11 (95 % CI 3.11–5.43) and 0.25 (95 % CI 0.17–0.36), respectively. The P value for χ 2 heterogeneity for all pooled estimates was 0.05). Conclusions Single-voxel proton MRS was useful for differentiation between malignant and benign breast lesions. However, pooled diagnostic measures might be overestimated. The standardization of the acquisition protocol for MRS across the multicenter trials is recommended.