Catherine Klifa1, David Newitt2,
Catherine Park3, Sachiko Suzuki2, Lisa Wilmes2,
Ying Lu4, Nola Hylton2
1Radiology & Biomedical
Imaging , University of California San Francisco, San Francisco , CA, United
States; 2Radiology & Biomedical Imaging, University of
California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; 3Department
of Radiation Oncology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco,
CA, United States; 4Department of Health Research & Policy,
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
There is growing interest in characterizing the role of stromal tissue surrounding breast tumors. We present a technique to quantitatively assess regions surrounding tumors on breast MRI, based on proximity to tumor tissue. We applied the proximity mapping method to MRI of 46 patients with breast cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Enhancement levels were measured at radial distances from tumor edges. We found a trend between contrast enhancement level within 10mm of the tumor after one treatment cycle and disease-free survival. Our technique could also measure other MRI functional parameters around tumors which is of interest to help guide local therapy and monitor treatment response.