Characterization of Breast Tumors with a Model-Dependent Analysis of Bolus-Tracking MRI

Smitha Makkat¹, Robert Luypaert¹, Steven Sourbron², Tadeusz Stadnik¹, Johan De Mey¹

We investigate whether a 2 compartment uptake model accurately describes high temporal resolution kinetics in breast pathology and also evaluate the resulting measured parameters in terms of tumor characterization in a small cohort of patients. We conclude that inclusion of the permeability parameter does not improve the differentiation potential in breast tumors. Malignant tumors with identical histopathology can exhibit different perfusion and permeability parameters, which points to the fact that DCE MRI can provide additional information that is not there in the histopathology.