Abstract Aim of study To assess MRI features of invasive breast cancer in relation to lymphovascular invasion (LVI) and its clinicopathological associations. Methods This retrospective study included 103 cases of pathologically proven breast cancer who had undergone preoperative MRI including conventional study, dynamic contrast-enhanced study (DCE) and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). Lesions were reviewed and described according to Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BIRADS) lexicon 2013 edition in addition to other MRI findings including: peritumoral edema, intratumoral high T2 signal intensity, tumor apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value, peritumoral ADC value, and peritumor–tumor ADC ratio. Histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis was done. Presence or absence of lymphovascular invasion (LVI) on postoperative histopathology was assessed. Statistical analyses were performed to identify significant MRI findings found with LVI as well as its clinicopathological associations. Results Higher T-stage of the tumor ( p 1.5) and peritumor/tumor ADC ratio (> 1.9) ( p < 0.001). Conclusions We found that lymphovascular invasion was more common in HER2-positive molecular subtypes and high-grade invasive tumors. T2-weighted imaging was helpful in detecting peritumoral edema and intratumoral high T2 signal which is strongly associated with lymphovascular invasion. Peritumoral ADC value and peritumor–tumor ADC ratio can be predictive MRI findings for LVI. This can impact management plans and patient prognosis especially in node-negative invasive breast cancer cases.
Settein et al. (Fri,) studied this question.