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Correlation of Whole-Breast Vascularity with Ipsilateral Breast Cancers Using Contrast-Enhanced MDCT

¹ Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Ajou University School of Medicine, San 5, Wonchon-dong, Yeongtonggu, Suwon, Kyongi-do 442-721, South Korea.
² Department of General Surgery, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Kyongi-do, South Korea.

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of our study was to assess the increase in whole-breast vascularity in patients with unilateral breast cancer and correlate that increase with prognostic factors of breast cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. We performed 16-MDCT on 143 consecutive patients with histologically confirmed breast cancer. One hundred three of these 143 patients were finally enrolled in the study after exclusion of patients with bilateral breast cancer, previous history of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, breast surgery, or lack of surgical confirmation. Breast vascularity was assessed according to the number, length, and conspicuity of vessels on maximum-intensity-projection images. Increase of whole-breast vascularity of the cancer-bearing breast was categorized as not increased, mild, moderate, or prominent compared with the contralateral breast. Breast vascularity was then correlated to prognostic factors including tumor size, lymph node status, cancer stage, nuclear and histologic grade, presence of an extensive intraductal component, presence of hormone receptors, and expression of C-erb-B2.

RESULTS. In 77 (74.8%) of 103 patients, breast cancers were found to be associated with ipsilateral increased whole-breast vascularity. In the 77 patients with increased vascularity, prominent, moderate, and mild vascularity were shown in 21 (27.3%), 23 (29.9%), and 33 (42.9%) patients, respectively. Ipsilateral increased vascularity was related to tumor size, lymph node status, cancer stage, nuclear grade, and histologic grade. The presence of extensive intraductal component and hormone receptors and the expression of C-erb-B2 were not related to ipsilateral increased vascularity.

CONCLUSION. Breast cancers were found to be associated with ipsilateral increased whole-breast vascularity in a significant percentage of patients. Increased whole-breast vascularity indicated the growth and metastatic potential of a breast cancer.

Keywords: angiogenesis • breast cancer • CT • vascularity

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