Objectives: To investigate the association of shear wave velocity (SWV) and its ratio (SWV ratio) using virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) imaging with clinicopathologic prognostic factors in women with invasive ductal breast cancer.
Methods: 138 consecutive women with invasive ductal breast cancer, who were diagnosed by pathological examination, were recruited between September 2011 and October 2013. Clinicopathologic findings were investigated in each participant, including age, invasive size, lymph node status, histological grade, estrogen receptor (ER) expression, progesterone receptor (PR) expression and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (C-erbB-2) expression. SWV and its ratio (breast mass/adjacent breast tissue) were measured by the VTQ imaging, and univariate analysis and multivariate regression analyses were applied to investigate their relationship with all clinicopathologic abnormalities.
Results: In univariate analyses, large mass size (P < 0.001), lymph node involvement (P < 0.001), High histological grade (P = 0.001) and C-erbB-2 expression (P = 0.029) were significantly associated with SWV, whereas large invasive size (P < 0.001), lymph node involvement (P = 0.001) and high histological grade (P = 0.007) were significantly related to SWV ratio. Multiple linear regression indicated that invasive size was the strongest pathologic determinant of SWV and its ratio (P < 0001).
Conclusion: SWV and its ratio by the VTQ imagining were significantly associated with clinicopathologic abnormalities, and may therefore provide prognostic information in patients with invasive ductal breast cancer.
Keywords: Invasive ductal breast cancers; shear wave velocity; shear wave velocity ratio.