Correlation between the dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI features and prognostic factors in breast cancer: A retrospective case-control study

This study analyzed the correlation between the dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) features with prognostic factors of breast cancer. Eighty-five breast cancer patients verified by pathology and immunohistochemistry underwent DCE-MRI examination. Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the DCE-MRI features [the strengthening types, shape, distribution, edge, internal reinforcement and the time-signal intensity curve (TIC) types] and the 4 immunohistochemical markers (ER, PR, Her-2, and Ki-67) by GraphPad InStat version 6.0 software. The enhanced morphology types, shapes, edge had significant correlation with the expression of ER (P = .001, P = .000, P = .001, respectively), PR (P = .045, P = .015, P = .000, respectively) and Ki-67 (P = .039, P = .000, P = .024, respectively), and no significant correlation with Her-2 expression (P = .906, P = .074, P = .679, respectively) was observed. There was significant correlation between internal enhancement patterns and Ki-67 expression (P = .004), and no significant correlation between internal enhancement patterns and the expression of ER, PR, and Her-2 (P = .208, P = .682, P = .437, respectively) was observed. TIC had significant correlation with ER, Ki-67 expressions (P = .022, P = .001, respectively), and no correlation with expressions of PR and Her-2 (P = .128, P = .391, respectively) was observed. The DCE-MRI features of breast cancer were well correlated with the expression of immunohistochemistry, and might also be helpful to evaluate the biological progress and prognosis.