A Novel MRI Method for Breast Cancer Detection Based on Diffusion Tensor Tracking of the Ductal Trees

Erez Eyal¹, Myra Shapiro-Feinberg², Edna Furman Haran¹, Dov Grobgeld¹, Talia Golan³, Yaakov Itzchak³, Raphael Catane³, Moshe Papa⁴, Hadassa Degani¹

Mammary malignancies typically develop from the ductal epithelial cells, and spread within the ducts. Consequently, the ductal structures are an important area of investigation of both normal breast development and malignant breast transformation. Our goal is to characterize the anisotropic water diffusion properties in the mammary ductal trees tissue using diffusion tensor MRI and to utilize this method to detect breast cancer. The results show that DTI based MRI reveals the diffusion anisotropy in the mammary ducts and can track changes in the diffusion tensor components due to cancer growth.