Using lesion washout volume fraction as a biomarker to improve suspicious breast lesion characterization

The purpose of this study was to evaluate using lesion washout (WO) volume fraction as a biomarker to improve the characterization of suspicious breast lesions. Study lesions consisted of a total of 60 malignant tumors (BI-RADS 6) and 62 suspicious lesions (BI-RADS 4 or 5). The biopsies of these suspicious lesions resulted in a total of 30 malignant tumors and 32 benign lesions, respectively, yielding a 48.4% positive predictive value (PPV) of the biopsies. The mean and standard deviation of the lesion WO volume fraction of these 60 BI-RADS 6 malignant tumors were first computed to establish a 99% sensitivity threshold value for malignant tumors, and then the biomarker was used to characterize the suspicious lesions. Using the biomarker would characterize all the malignant tumors as malignant, 12 out of the 32 benign lesions as benign, potentially resulting in a 24% improvement rate in the PPV of the biopsies (from 48.4% to 60%) and consequently a 22.5% reduction rate in the false-positive rate of benign biopsies (from 51.6% to 40%). The lesion WO volume fraction biomarker could improve the computer-based assessment of breast MRI by increasing the PPV of breast biopsies and reducing the number of unnecessary biopsies without compromising sensitivity.