Quantitative assessment of background parenchymal enhancement in breast magnetic resonance images predicts the risk of breast cancer

// Xiaoxin Hu 1, 2 , Luan Jiang 3 , Qiang Li 3 , Yajia Gu 1, 2 1 Department of Radiology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China 2 Department of Oncology, Fudan University Shanghai Medical College, Shanghai, China 3 Center for Advanced Medical Imaging Technology, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China Correspondence to: Yajia Gu, email: cjr.guyajia@vip.163.com Keywords: BPE, breast, quantitative assessment, breast parenchymal enhancement rate, MRI Received: April 29, 2016     Accepted: November 01, 2016     Published: November 24, 2016 ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the association betweenthe quantitative assessment of background parenchymal enhancement rate (BPER) and breast cancer. From 14,033 consecutive patients who underwent breast MRI in our center, we randomly selected 101 normal controls. Then, we selected 101 women with benign breast lesions and 101 women with breast cancer who were matched for age and menstruation status. We evaluated BPER at early (2 minutes), medium (4 minutes) and late (6 minutes) enhanced time phases of breast MRI for quantitative assessment. Odds ratios (ORs) for risk of breast cancer were calculated using the receiver operating curve. The BPER increased in a time-dependent manner after enhancement in both premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Premenopausal women had higher BPER than postmenopausal women at early, medium and late enhanced phases. In the normal population, the OR for probability of breast cancer for premenopausal women with high BPER was 4.1 (95% CI: 1.7–9.7) and 4.6 (95% CI: 1.7–12.0) for postmenopausal women. The OR of breast cancer morbidity in premenopausal women with high BPER was 2.6 (95% CI: 1.1–6.4) and 2.8 (95% CI: 1.2–6.1) for postmenopausal women. The BPER was found to be a predictive factor of breast cancer morbidity. Different time phases should be used to assess BPER in premenopausal and postmenopausal women.