Assessment of Neoadjuvant Treatment Response Using Automated Breast Ultrasound in Breast Cancer

Breast imaging techniques are used to assess the tumor response to neoadjuvant treatment (NAT), which is increasingly one of the preferred therapeutic options and increases the rate of breast conservation for breast cancer. Herein, we report a case in which a woman was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma in the left breast and received NAT before surgery. Automated breast ultrasound (AB US) was regularly performed before and during the NAT to evaluate the tumor response to NAT by measuring diameter changes and volume reductions of the tumor. Images showed that the tumor size was significantly reduced and disappeared after 7 cycles of NAT, except for macrocalcification. Postoperative histopathological examination confirmed that there were no residual tumor cells. We found that AB US overcame the limitations of handheld US, such as operator dependence, poor reproducibility and limited field of view, and can be an alternative modality to assess the tumor response of NAT in the absence of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instruments.