Hyeon-Man Baek1,2, Jeon-Hor Chen3,4, Orhan Nalcioglu3, Min-Ying Su3
1Department of Radiology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA; 2Center for Function Onco-Imaging , University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA; 3Center for Function Onco-Imaging, University of California-Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA; 4Department of Radiology, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan
The impact of tumor size and histological types on the diagnostic performance of in vivo 1H MR spectroscopy was investigated in 105 biopsy-confirmed breast tumors. The sensitivity was only 46% in tumors of 1.0-1.9 cm, then increased to 70% in 2.0-2.9 cm group, and 82% in 3.0 cm & above group. The detection sensitivity was higher for invasive cancer (71%) than for DCIS (27%), and higher for invasive ductal cancer (74%) or mixed type (67%) than for invasive lobular cancer (50%). Further improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) may enhance the detection of tCho and improve the diagnostic sensitivity. One approach is to use the scanner at higher magnetic fields (3.0T and 7.0T).