Prognostic Factors of Disease Recurrence in Breast Cancer Using Quantitative and Qualitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Parameters

The purpose of this study was to investigate prognostic factors predicting recurrence of breast cancer, focusing on imaging factors including morphologic features, quantitative MR parameters, and clinicopathologic factors. This retrospective study was approved by our institutional review board, and the requirement to obtain informed consent was waived. A total of 267 patients with breast cancer were enrolled in this study, who underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before surgery from February 2014 to June 2016. Imaging parameters of MRI, including morphologic features, perfusion parameters, and texture analysis, were retrospectively reviewed by two expert breast radiologists. Clinicopathologic information of enrolled patients was also reviewed using medical records. Univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with cancer recurrence. C statistics was used to discriminate low and high risk patients for disease recurrence. Using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, disease-free survival was compared between patients who experienced recurrence and those who did not. At a median follow up of 49 months, 32 patients (12%) showed disease: six cases of ipsilateral breast or axilla recurrence, one case of contralateral breast recurrence, 24 cases of distant metastasis, and one case of both ipsilateral breast recurrence and distant metastasis. Of multiple imaging features and parameters, increased ipsilateral vascularity and higher positive skewness of texture analysis showed significant association with disease recurrence in every multivariable model regardless of tumor subtype and pathologic stage. Pathologic stage, especially if higher than stage II, showed significant association with disease recurrence and its highest hazard ratio was 3.45 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.37–8.67, p = 0.008]. Of the multivariable models, the model including clinico-pathologic factors and both qualitative and quantitative imaging parameters showed good discrimination with a high C index value of 0.825 (95% CI: 0.755–0.896). In addition, recurrence associated factors were associated with short interval time to disease recurrence by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Therefore, comprehensive analysis using both clinico-pathologic factors and qualitative and quantitative imaging parameters is more effective in predicting breast cancer recurrence. Among those factors, higher pathologic stage, increased ipsilateral vascularity and higher positive skewness of texture analysis could be good predictors of breast cancer recurrence. Moreover, when these three factors are applied comprehensively, they may also be the predictors for poor survival.