Studying Breast Tumour Heterogeneity with a Fractal Analysis Tool, a Prognostic Indicator of Tumour Pathological Response Before Chemotherapy Treatment

Pierluigi Di Giovanni¹, Scott IK Semple², Roger T. Staff¹, Thomas W. Redpath¹, Fiona J. Gilbert¹

Maps of the distribution of contrast agent within breast tumours can be produced by subtracting pre and post Gd-DTPA images. This subtraction map can be used for tumour heterogeneity analysis based on a fractal method. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the fractal information could provide any prognostic value in terms of tumour's pathological response. We have shown that there is a significant correlation with the tumour's pathological response and the goodness of fit of a breast tumour contrast distribution map into the fractal model (p < 0.01, Spearmans rho = 0.42)