ABSTRACT
Objective:To investigate the correlation between the breast cancer MRI schedule of reinforcement and the shrinkage pattern of tumor after neo-adjuvant chemotherapy, and its clinical significance in the guidance of formulating operation plan. Methods:Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI scan was performed before chemotherapy and before surgery after a whole-range N-Acety-L-Cysteine (NAC) treatment in 55 patients with loco-regionally advanced breast cancer who received the neo-adjuvant chemotherapy. MRI sched-ule of reinforcement and the shrinkage pattern of tumor after neo-adjuvant chemotherapy were obtained in the treatment, and the corre-lation between the two was analyzed. Results:Of the 55 patients, the unilateral breast mass was found in 54 and the bilateral lesion in 1. There were 56 neo-plastic foci in these patients. The mass-like enhanced image was seen in 24 of the total cases (43%), of which 23 presented with a centripetal shrinkage, 1 with an annular decline, (P0.05). There were 11 of the total cases with non-tu-mor-like enhancement (20%), in which 4 assumed a centripetal shrinkage and 7 a honeycombed multifocal shrinkage (P<0.01). Conclu-sion:The tumor shrinking pattern and its accurate radiological image evaluation are the keys to the selection of breast-conserving sur-gery and the control of local recurrence after treatment of NAC regimen. We can predict the shrinking pattern through the type of the le-sion on baseline before NAC, which is important for the patients and surgeon to get a reasonable expectation in the subsequent treat-ments.