Texture Analysis of Computed Tomography Images in the Lung of Patients With Breast Cancer

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the texture features of lung computed tomography images were altered by primary breast cancer without pulmonary metastasis.

Texture analysis was performed on the regions of interest of lung computed tomography images from 36 patients with breast cancer and 36 healthy controls. Texture parameters between subjects with different clinical stages and hormone receptor (HR) statuses in patients with breast cancer were analyzed.

Three texture parameters (mean, SD, and variance) were significantly different between patients with breast cancer and healthy controls and between preoperative and postoperative stages in patients with breast cancer. All 3 parameters showed an increasing trend under the tumor-bearing state. These parameters were significantly higher in the stage III + IV group than in the stage I + II group. The variance parameter was significantly higher in the HR-negative group than in the HR-positive group.

Texture analysis may serve as a novel additional tool for discovering conventionally invisible changes in the lung tissue of patients with breast cancer.