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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Cancer Imaging and Image-directed Interventions
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1498691
This article is part of the Research Topic Methods and Applications of Tumour Metabolic Imaging in the Preclinical and Clinical Setting View all articles
Microstructural diffusion MRI for differentiation of breast tumors and prediction of prognostic factors in breast cancer
Provisionally accepted
Xiaoyan Wang 
Yan Zhang * Jingliang Cheng *
Liangjie Lin Ying Hu * Anfei Wang * Yong Zhang * Ruhua Wang *
Ying Li Kun Zhang * Wenhua Zhang *- Department of MRI, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Purpose: This study aims to investigate the feasibility of cellular microstructural mapping by the diffusion MRI (IMPULSED, imaging microstructural parameters using limited spectrally edited diffusion) of breast tumors, and further to evaluate whether the MRIderived microstructural features is associated with the prognostic factors in breast cancer.This prospective study collected 232 patients with suspected breast tumors from March to August 2023.The IMPULSED MRI scan included acquisitions of diffusion MRI using both pulsed (PGSE) and oscillating (OGSE) gradient spin echo with the oscillating frequencies up to 33 Hz. The OGSE and PGSE data were fitted by the IMPUSLED method using a twocompartment model to estimate mean cell diameter (d mean ), intracellular fraction (f in ), extracellular diffusivity (D ex ), and cellularity index (f in /d) within breast tumor lesions. The apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) were calculated from the conventional diffusion weighted imaging, PGSE, and OGSE (17 Hz and 33 Hz) sequences (ADC DWI , ADC PGSE , ADC 17Hz , and ADC 33Hz ). The independent samples test was used to compare the dmean, fin, Dex, cellularity index, and ADC values between benign and malignant breast tumors, and 0.650 (sensitivity = 77.46%, and specificity = 56.52%), respectively, and their combination showed AUCs of 0.693 (sensitivity = 69.57%, specificity = 64.79%) of HER-2(+) and HER-2(-).The IMPULSED method demonstrates promise for characterizing cellular microstructural features in breast tumors, which may be helpful for prognostic risk evaluation in breast cancer.
Keywords: microstructural diffusion MRI, Breast tumor, Benign and malignant, molecular prognostic biomarker, IMPULSED method
Received: 19 Sep 2024; Accepted: 06 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Zhang, Cheng, Lin, Hu, Wang, Zhang, Wang, Li, Zhang and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yan Zhang, Department of MRI, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Jingliang Cheng, Department of MRI, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Ying Hu, Department of MRI, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Anfei Wang, Department of MRI, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Yong Zhang, Department of MRI, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Ruhua Wang, Department of MRI, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Kun Zhang, Department of MRI, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
Wenhua Zhang, Department of MRI, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, China
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