Value of apparent diffusion coefficient factor in correlation with the molecular subtypes, tumor grade, and expression of Ki-67 in breast cancer

Abstract

Abstract Background Breast cancer is known to be the most common cancer in women; in the last decade, contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging has become an important tool in the diagnosis of cancer breast. Numerous studies have analyzed associations between imaging and histopathological features as well as the proliferation potential of breast cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and expression of Ki-67 as well as tumor molecular subtype in breast cancer. Results No significant difference between the mean ADC value of tumors of grade I, II, and III was found. However, there was a significant difference between the mean ADC value of tumors of molecular type A and molecular type B (P = 0.000), HER2 overexpression (P = 0.018), and TN (P = 0.000), respectively. However, there was no significant difference between molecular type B, HER2 overexpression and TN. Also, no significant difference was found between the Ki-67 value of tumors of grade I, II, and III. Yet there was a significant difference between the mean ADC value of tumors of molecular type A and molecular type B (P = 0.000), HER2 overexpression (P = 0.014), and TN (P = 0.000), respectively. However, there was no significant difference between molecular type B, HER2 overexpression, and TN. Conclusions There is a significant inverse correlation between ADC values and Ki-67 expression. DWI and Ki-67 could be a good discriminator between tumors of molecular subtype A from other subtypes, yet it did not show a correlation with the tumor grade.

Keywords

• Magnetic resonance imaging
• Diffusion
• ADC value
• Ki-67
• Breast cancer molecular subtypes