Can imaging kinetic parameters of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging be valuable in predicting clinicopathological prognostic factors of invasive breast cancer?

Background: Intrinsic molecular profiling of breast cancer provides clinically relevant information that helps tailor therapy directed to the specific tumor subtype. We hypothesized that dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) derived quantitative kinetic parameters (CD-QKPs) may help predict molecular tumor profiles non-invasively. Purpose: To determine the association between DCE-MRI (CD-QKPs) and breast cancer clinicopathological prognostic factors. Material and Methods: Clinicopathological factors in consecutive women with biopsy-confirmed invasive breast cancer who underwent breast DCE-MRI were retrospectively reviewed. Analysis of variance was used to examine associations between prognostic factors and CD-QKPs. Fisher’s exact test was used to investigate the relationship between kinetic curve type and prognostic factors. Results: A total of 198 women with invasive breast cancer were included. High-grade and HER2+ tumors were more likely to have a washout type curve while luminal A tumors were less likely. High-grade was significantly associated with increased peak enhancement (PE; P = 0.01), enhancement maximum slope (MS; P = 0.03), and mean enhancement (ME, P = 0.03), while high clinical lymph node stage (cN3) was significantly associated with increased MS and time to peak (tP; P = 0.01). HER2+ tumors were associated with a higher PE (P = 0.03) and ME (P = 0.06) than HER2- counterparts, and ER-/HER2+ tumors showed higher PE and ME values than ER+/HER2- tumors (P = 0.06). Conclusion: DCE-MRI time-intensity CD-QKPs are associated with high tumor grade, advanced nodal stage, and HER2+ status, indicating their utility as imaging biomarkers.