title: Prediction of pathological complete response of breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy: usefulness of breast MRI computer-aided detection.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the usefulness of MR computer-aided detection (CAD) in patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy for prediction of the pathological complete response of tumours.
  
  
  METHODS
  148 patients with breast cancer (mean age, 47.3 years; range, 29-72 years) who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy were included in our study. They underwent MRI before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and we reviewed the pathological result as the gold standard. The computer-generated kinetic features for each lesion were recorded, and the features analysed included "threshold enhancement" at 50% and 100% minimum thresholds; degree of initial peak enhancement; and enhancement profiles comprising lesion percentages of washout, plateau and persistent enhancement. The final pathological size and character of tumours were correlated with post-chemotherapy mammography, ultrasonography and MR CAD findings. Kruskal-Wallis test and intraclass correlation coefficient were used to analyse the findings.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We divided the 148 patients into complete pathological response and non-complete pathological response groups. A complete pathological response was defined as no histopathological evidence of any residual invasive cancer cells in the breast or axillary lymph nodes. 39 patients showed complete pathological response, and 109 patients showed non-complete pathological response. Between enhancement profiles of MR CAD, plateau proportion of tumours was significantly correlated with the pathological response of tumours (mean proportion of plateau on complete pathological response group was 27%, p = 0.007).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  When plateau proportion of tumours is high, we can predict non-complete pathological response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MR CAD can be a useful tool for the assessment of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and prediction of pathological results.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Radiology, Seoul Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cha
authors.forename: E Y
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Chae
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Choi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy / Q000379:methods; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents