BACKGROUNDEarlier studies have examined the association between the diameter of primary tumors measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and histopathology in breast cancer patients. However, the diameter does not completely describe the dimensions of the breast tumor or its volumetric proportion relative to the whole breast. The association between breast tumor volume/breast volume ratios measured by these two techniques has not been reported.

METHODSSeventy-three patients were recruited from female patients with primary breast tumors admitted to our center between January and December 2010. They were divided into two groups. Group A (n = 46) underwent modified radical mastectomy (MRM), and Group B (n = 27) underwent preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy before MRM. They were examined by dynamic-contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) to measure breast volumes (BVs), tumor volumes (TVs), and tumor volume/breast volume ratios (TV/BV). These measurements were compared with histopathology results after MRM, and the associations between MRI and pathology were analyzed by linear regression and Bland-Altman analysis.

RESULTSFor Group A, the correlation coefficients for BVs, TVs, and TV/BV ratios measured by the two techniques were 0.938, 0.921, and 0.897 (all P < 0.001), respectively. For Group B, the correlation coefficients for BVs, TVs, and TV/BV ratios were 0.936, 0.902, and 0.869 (all P < 0.01), respectively. The results suggest statistically significant correlations between these parameters measured by the two techniques for both groups.

CONCLUSIONFor these patients, BVs, TVs, and TV/BV ratios measured by DCE-MRI significantly correlated with those determined by histopathology.