Purpose
The most important prognostic factors of breast cancer are the tumor size and lymph node metastases. The accuracy of breast MRI in estimating tumor size has been investiated. Also, the role of breast MRI in diagnosing breast cancer has been
studied
since 1970s. Methods
Between June 1997 and July 1998, 60 female patients with clinically and/or mammographically, sonographically suspicious breast carcinoma underwent surgery (surgical biopsy, lumpectomy, or mastectomy). With Gd-DTPA (gadolinium-diethylenetriamine
pentaacetic acid), contrast-enhanced MR imaging of the breast was performed in all patients. we analyzed the specificity and the sensitivity of breast MRI compared to breast sonography and the mammography. We correlated the preoperative
measurements of
breast tumor size obtained using mammography, ultrasonography, and MRI with the values obtained from pathologic examination. Results
The average age of the patients was 44.5 years and 48 patients (80%) had a palpable mass. On histopathologic examination, 40 of 60 patients (66.7%) had malignant lesions. The specificities and the sensitivities of breast MRI, sonography and
mammography
were 73.7% and 85.0%, 70.0% and 92.9%, and 66.7% and 66.7%, respectively. MRI measurements demonstrated the highest correlation coefficient (r=0.895), with the lowest residual standard deviation (1.323) calculated in relation to the regression
line. The
correlation coefficient between sonographic tumor size and pathologic tumor size was 0.807 and the residual standard deviation was 2.194. Conclusion
The specificity and the sensitivity of the breast MRI were higher than those of mammography, but there was no difference between MRI and sonography. Breast MRI yielded the most accurate determination of breast cancer size in this series. As a
result,
MRI was useful for the diagnosis and the measurement of the tumor size.
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