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Feasibility of MR spectroscopy for characterizing malignant breast lesions using a clinical 3-T scanner

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Abstract

Background

To investigate the feasibility of in vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) for characterizing malignant breast lesions using a clinical 3-T scanner, and to compare the measured total choline-containing compound (tCho) levels in this work with the previously published results at 1.5 T and 4 T.

Methods

Twenty-six patients (35–72 years old, mean age 53 years), with biopsy-confirmed breast cancer, underwent anatomical imaging, dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging, and single-voxel 1H-MRS. The absolute tCho concentration in malignant tumors was calculated and was expressed as a concentration unit in mmol/kg. All lesions were divided into two groups (mass- and non-mass-type lesions), based on the morphological pattern of enhancement, and analyzed.

Results

The measured tCho levels had a range of 0.10–10.1 (mean ± SD, 1.62 ± 2.29 mmol/kg) in 15 (58 %) of 26 malignant breast spectra, which was consistent with the previous in vivo estimates at 1.5 T and 4.0 T. There were 11 (42 %) false-negative cases, which resulted in 58 % sensitivity. The sensitivity of the 1H-MRS in size-dependent subgroups (e.g., <2.0 and ≥2.0 cm) increased from 14 to 66 %, in a statistically significant manner (P = 0.019). In addition, the tCho detection rate was higher in mass-type lesions (14/21, 66 %) than in non-mass-type lesions (1/5, 20 %), reaching a significant level (P = 0.03). The sensitivity based on the dynamic contrast-enhanced kinetics was 100 %.

Conclusions

Quantitative in vivo 1H-MRS at 3 T may provide useful information for quantifying tCho concentration levels and characterizing tumor types (e.g., mass vs diffuse) of breast cancer. However, its limitation in characterizing small lesions has to be considered.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported in part by KBSI (Korea Basic Science Institute) grant #E33601 and #T33416.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Korea Basic Science Institute, 162 Yeongudanji-Ro, Ochang-eup, Cheongwon-gun, Chungbuk, 363-883, Korea

    Hyeon-Man Baek & Yun-Ju Lee

  2. Department of Bio-Analytical Science, University of Science and Technology, 217 Gajungro, Yuseong-ro, Daejeon, 305-333, Korea

    Hyeon-Man Baek

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Correspondence to Hyeon-Man Baek.

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Baek, HM., Lee, YJ. Feasibility of MR spectroscopy for characterizing malignant breast lesions using a clinical 3-T scanner. Breast Cancer 22, 510–519 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-013-0514-y

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