Predictive value of acoustic radiation force impulse imaging in breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy

To investigate the predictive value of acoustic radiation force impulse imaging for neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. Seventy-eight breast cancer patients treated in our hospital from March 2019 to March 2022 were recruited. They received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and were examined by conventional ultrasound and acoustic radiation force impulse imaging before chemotherapy and after two cycles of chemotherapy. The lesion diameter, intralesional blood flow pulsatility index (PI), resistance index (RI), shear wave velocity (SWV), and change rate (Δlesion diameter, ΔPI, ΔRI, ΔSWV) were compared between the two groups before and after chemotherapy. The receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn to evaluate the predictive power of related parameters on the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. After two cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, according to the Miller-Payne grading, 57 cases (73.08%) with significant neoadjuvant chemotherapy response were classified as the response group, and 21 cases (26.92%) with non-significant response were classified as the non-response group. Before and after chemotherapy, the difference in lesion diameter, PI, RI, SWV, and change rate (Δlesion diameter, ΔPI, ΔRI, and ΔSWV) was statistically significant between the two groups (P < 0.05). The area under the curve of ΔSWV in predicting the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy 0.876 (95%CI 0.781 ~ 0.939) was significantly higher than that of Δlesion diameter 0.652 (95%CI 0.535 ~ 0.756), that of ΔPI 0.712 (95%CI 0.599 ~ 0.809), and that of ΔRI 0.678 (95%CI 0.563 ~ 0.780) (P < 0.05). The change rate of tissue stiffness has a relatively high predictive value for the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer.