To evaluate the utility of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values for differentiating breast tumors.
The medical records of 17 patients with phyllodes tumor [PT; circular regions of interest (ROI-cs) n = 171], 74 patients with fibroadenomas (FAs; ROI-cs, n = 94), and 57 patients with breast cancers (BCs; ROI-cs, n = 104) confirmed by surgical pathology were retrospectively reviewed.
There were significant differences between PTs, FAs, and BCs in ADCmean, ADCmax, and ADCmin values. The cutoff ADCmean for differentiating PTs from FAs was 1.435 × 10−3 mm2/s, PTs from BCs was 1.100 × 10−3 mm2/s, and FAs from BCs was 0.925 × 10−3 mm2/s. There were significant differences between benign PTs, borderline PTs, and malignant PTs in ADCmean, ADCmax, and ADCmin values. The cutoff ADCmean for differentiating benign PTs from borderline PTs was 1.215 × 10−3 mm2/s, and borderline PTs from malignant PTs was 1.665 × 10−3 mm2/s.
DWI provides quantitative information that can help distinguish breast tumors.