Stiffness Could be a Predictor of AJCC Prognostic Stage Groups in Preoperative Invasive Ductal Carcinoma

This study aimed to evaluate the stiffness of 2-dimensional (2D) shear wave elastography (SWE) in preoperatively predicting the prognostic stage groups of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC).

Eighty-six newly diagnosed lesions on 83 patients with IDCs were analyzed. All parameters from conventional ultrasound and stiffness to virtual touch tissue imaging and quantification were collected, and mean shear wave velocity (SWVmean) was calculated. Data on maximum diameter, estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), histologic grading system and Tumor Node Metastasis (TNM) stages were collected. The levels of maximum shear wave velocity (SWVmax), minimum shear wave velocity (SWVmin) and SWVmean were compared. In receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves analysis, the diagnostic efficacy was found in area under the curve (AUC). Parallel mode was used to improve the predictive value of sensitivity.

The median stiffness of SWVmax and SWVmean for IDCs were 9.38 and 6.32 m/s for late stage (stages II, III, IV) and 6.39 m/s and 4.72 m/s for early stage (stage I) of the prognostic stage groups, respectively. The median stiffness values in the late stage were significantly higher than those in the early stage (P = .003, P = .005). The optimal cutoff stiffness of SWVmax and SWVmean were 8.62 and 6.13 m/s, respectively. In ROC curves analysis, the AUC for SWVmax was 0.742, and it showed a better diagnostic value than SWVmean (0.725). In predictive diagnosis, the sensitivity for SWVmax and SWVmean were both 62.50%. The parallel mode improved the prediction power of sensitivity to 68.75%.

Preoperative SWV level may serve as a promising prognostic imaging indicator for breast IDCs.