Advantages of Time-Dependent Diffusion MRI for Quantitative Microstructural Mapping in Breast Tumors

Bao, Lei; Li, Sijie; Wang, Zhuo; Sun, Yang; Qiu, Ying; Shen, Zhiwei; Zhang, Xiaoxiao; Chen, Xue; Zhang, Xiaoxiao; Zhang, Junyu; Ji, Tiefeng

doi:10.3389/fonc.2025.1537529

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.

Sec. Breast Cancer

Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1537529

Advantages of Time-Dependent Diffusion MRI for Quantitative Microstructural Mapping in Breast Tumors

Provisionally accepted

Lei Bao ¹

Sijie Li ¹

Zhuo Wang ¹

Yang Sun ¹

Ying Qiu ¹

Zhiwei Shen ²

Xiaoxiao Zhang ²

Xue Chen ¹

Xiaoxiao Zhang ¹

Junyu Zhang ¹

Tiefeng Ji ^1*

¹ First Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin Province, China
² Philips Healthcare (China), Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Objectives:Time-dependent diffusion MRI (TD-MRI) can measure tumor tissue microstructure, but its effectiveness in differentiating benign from malignant breast tumors is unclear.This study aims to investigate the diagnostic value of TD-MRI microstructural features for distinguishing between benign and malignant breast tumors.: This prospective study included 44 patients with malignant breast tumors and 28 with benign tumors. All subjects underwent the IMPULSED protocol on a 3.0-T MRI scanner. Imaging data were analyzed using least squares fitting in MATLAB, yielding Dex (extracellular diffusivity), Vin (intracellular volume fraction), Dmean (cell diameter), Vin/Dmean, and ADC values. The molecular subtypes of breast cancer are classified based on immunohistochemistry (IHC) results. Results: Malignant tumors exhibited significantly lower Dmean (17.37±2.74 µm vs.22.47±3.85µm, p<0.0001), higher Vin (0.41±0.13% vs. 0.19±0.10%, p<0.0001), and higher Vin/Dmean (2.13±0.66 vs. 0.93±0.61, p<0.0001) compared to benign tumors.No significant difference was found in Dex (2.15±0.28 um 2 /ms vs. 2.25±0.31 um 2 /ms, p>0.05). Strong correlations were observed: positive between ADC and Dmean, and negative between ADC and both Vin and Vin/Dmean. AUC values for Vin (0.92; 95% CI: 0.86-0.99), and Vin/Dmean (0.91; 95% CI: 0.83-0.98) surpassed those for ADC.Conclusion:TD-MRI microstructure mapping effectively differentiates benign from malignant breast tumors, highlighting its potential to improve diagnostic accuracy for lesions.

Keywords: Time-dependent diffusion MRI, Breast tumor, Microstructural characteristics, ADC, Diagnostic efficacy

Received: 01 Dec 2024; Accepted: 06 Mar 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Bao, Li, Wang, Sun, Qiu, Shen, Zhang, Chen, Zhang, Zhang and Ji. 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: Tiefeng Ji, First Affiliated Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, Jilin Province, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.