Can shear wave elastography be utilized as an additional tool for the assessment of non-mass breast lesions?

We aimed to describe shear wave elastography parameters of non-mass lesions of the breast and to assess the measures of diagnostic accuracy of shear wave elastography in the differentiation of non-mass lesions compared with conventional ultrasound, using histopathologic results as the reference standard.

This retrospective study included breast ultrasound-detected non-mass lesions with a confirmed pathologic diagnosis during a two-year study period. B-mode ultrasound and shear wave elastography were performed for all lesions before biopsy. Ultrasound features, shear wave elastography parameters (mean elasticity and maximum stiffness color), as well as Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System categories were recorded for each lesion. Measures of diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound and ultrasound + shear wave elastography were also assessed.

From a total of 567 breast lesions requiring core-needle biopsy, 49 (8.6%) were considered as non-mass lesions. Based on histopathologic reports, 32 patients (65.3%) had non-high-risk benign lesions, five (10.2%) had high-risk benign lesions, five (10.2%) had ductal carcinoma in situ, and seven (14.3%) had invasive carcinoma. There was no significant difference in patients' age and palpability between benign and malignant lesions (p = 0.16 and p = 0.12, respectively). Mean elasticity values and Breast Imaging-Reporting and Data System categories were significantly higher among malignant lesions compared with benign non-mass lesions (both p < 0.001). Furthermore, the addition of shear wave elastography to grayscale ultrasound increased the specificity, positive predictive value, and diagnostic accuracy.

The complementary use of shear wave elastography with conventional ultrasound might help in the differentiation of non-mass breast lesions and has the potential to decrease the frequency of unnecessary biopsies performed for benign non-mass lesions.