Non-contrast-enhanced breast MRI for evaluation of tumor volume change after neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Three-dimensional contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (3D-Ce-MRI) is a most powerful tool for evaluation of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). However, the use of contrast agent is invasive, expensive, and time consuming, Thus, contrast agent-free imaging is preferable. We aimed to investigate the tumor volume change after NAC using maximum intensity projection diffusion-weighted image (MIP-DWI) and 3D-Ce-MRI.

We finally enrolled 55 breast cancer patients who underwent NAC in 2018. All MRI analyses were performed using SYNAPSE VINCENT® medical imaging system (Fujifilm Medical, Tokyo, Japan). We evaluated the tumor volumes before, during, and after NAC. Tumor volume before NAC on 3D-Ce-MRI was termed Pre-CE and those during and after NAC were termed Post-CE. The observer raised the lower end of the window width until the tumor was clearly visible and then manually deleted the non-tumor tissues. A month thereafter, the same observer who was blinded to the 3D-Ce-MRI results randomly evaluated the tumor volumes (Pre-DWI and Post-DWI) using MIP-DWI with the same method. Tumor volume change between ΔCE (Pre-CE - Post-CE/Pre-CE) and ΔDWI (Pre-DWI - Post-DWI/Pre-DWI) and the processing time for both methods (Time-DWI and Time-CE) were compared.

We enrolled 55 patients. Spearman's rho between ΔDWI and ΔCE for pure mass lesions, and non-mass enhancement (NME) was 0.89 (p < 0.01), 0.63(p < 0.01) respectively. Time-DWI was significantly shorter than Time-CE (41.3 ± 21.2 and 199.5 ± 98.3 respectively, p < 0.01).

Non-contrast-enhanced Breast MRI enables appropriate and faster evaluation of tumor volume change after NAC than 3D-Ce-MRI especially for mass lesions.