Ultrafast Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI Using Compressed Sensing: Associations of Early Kinetic Parameters With Prognostic Factors of Breast Cancer.

Abstract

<b>OBJECTIVE.</b> The purpose of this study was to investigate whether early kinetic parameters derived from ultrafast dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) using compressed sensing are associated with prognostic factors for breast cancer. <b>MATERIALS AND METHODS.</b> We evaluated 201 consecutive women (mean age, 54.6 years) with breast cancer (168 invasive, 33 ductal carcinoma in situ) who underwent both ultrafast DCE-MRI using compressed sensing (temporal resolution, 4.7 seconds; spatial resolution, 0.8 × 1.1 × 0.9 mm) and surgery between 2018 and 2019. Early kinetic parameters (time to enhancement [TTE] and maximum slope [MS]) were measured in breast lesions by two radiologists using a software program and were correlated with histopathologic prognostic factors. The Mann-Whitney <i>U</i> test and linear regression analysis were used. <b>RESULTS.</b> The median TTE and MS values for breast cancer were 11.9 seconds and 7.7%/s, respectively. The median MS was significantly larger in invasive cancer lesions than in ductal carcinoma in situ lesions (8.4%/s vs 4.7%/s, <i>p</i> < .001). In women with invasive cancer, multivariate linear regression analyses showed that a larger tumor size (> 2 cm) (<i>p</i> = .048) and estrogen receptor-negative status (<i>p</i> < .001) were significantly associated with a shorter TTE. A higher histologic grade (grade 3) (<i>p</i> = .01) was significantly associated with a larger MS. We observed excellent interobserver agreement between two readers in the measurements of TTE and MS (intraclass correlation coefficients, 0.943 and 0.890, respectively). <b>CONCLUSION.</b> Ultrafast MRI-derived early enhancement parameters, such as TTE and MS, are associated with histopathologic prognostic factors in women with breast cancer.