Pharmacokinetic mapping of breast tumors: a new statistical analysis technique for dynamic magnetic resonance imaging

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among women, constituting a major health problem. Different MRI techniques have been investigated in the past in order to improve the detection and diagnosis of breast tumors. One such technique is the dynamic contrast-enhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI), using diffusible CM (contrast media), such as Gd-DTPA. Here we employ a two compartment CM kinetics model (blood plasma and surrounding interstitial space being the two compartments), where the exchange of contrast agent between these compartments is bidirectionally linear. In this study we use images from 29 suspected breast carcinoma patients who underwent whole breast DCE-MRI. Each of these studies has 64 coronal sections of the whole breast, taken at 6 or 7 time points (the sampling period being about 2 minutes). Subsequent histo-pathological analysis of these patients reveal: 22 intraductal carcinomas (IDC), 3 intralobular carcinomas (ILC), 2 ductal carcinomas in-situ (DCIS) and 3 benign tumors.