Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Correlation with Different Clinico-Pathological and Molecular Prognostic Factors of Breast Cancer

Luke Bonello¹, Giuseppe Petralia², Paul Summers², Roberto Di Filippi², Sara Raimondi², Giuseppe Renne², Giuseppe Curigliano², Massimo Bellomi, ¹²

We evaluated the correlation of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) obtained from diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) with clinico-pathological and molecular prognostic factors of breast cancer in 88 patients. Mean ADC for T4 tumors was higher than for T2 tumors (p<0.05); mean ADC for lymph node positive tumors (N1/N2) was lower than for lymph node negative tumors (p&#8804;0.02). No significant differences in ADC between the 4 different gene profiling subgroups of breast cancer (Luminal A, Luminal B, HER-2, Triple Negative) were identified. Our results suggest that ADC can potentially serve as an additional non-invasive clinical prognostic factor in breast cancer.