Quantitative Measures of Breast Density and Tissue Patterns Using MRI

Catherine Klifa¹, Julio Carballido-Gamio¹, Jessica Gibbs¹, Nola Hylton¹

We investigated quantitative measures of breast MRI tissue patterns. High breast density is a strong marker for breast cancer risk and mammography is currently the approved modality for breast density assessment but performs poorly in women with dense breasts. MRI provides very good soft-tissue contrast and 3D information on breast tissue content. We showed that women with similar mammographic densities may present very different tissue patterns on MRI. We defined new quantitative measures using breast MRI data of 50 normal volunteers and showed that a new MR breast tissue index may provide complementary information to MR breast density. Our new MRI quantitative measures could have applicability to improve breast cancer risk assessment techniques.