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Breast - MRI Leonard Glassman and Marieke Hazewinkel
Breast - MRI Leonard Glassman and Marieke Hazewinkel
This review is based on a presentation given by Leonard Glassman and adapted for the
Radiology Assistant by Marieke Hazewinkel.
MRI is a powerful tool: it is able to detect cancer not visible on conventional imaging, it can
be used as a problem-solving instrument, and it can be applied to screen high-risk patients.
Breast MRI is also better at monitoring the response to chemotherapy than other imaging
modalities used today.
It can change the treatment plan in 15-30% of patients with breast cancer.
Introduction
Enhancing lesions are divided into three main categories: focus/foci, masses, and
areas of non-mass enhancement (1).
- Focus (or when multiple, foci) is an area of enhancement measuring less than 5
mm in diameter which is too small to characterize.
- A mass is a three-dimensional lesion that occupies a space within the breast.
Just as in mammography and ultrasound, we look at its shape, its margins and its
internal characteristics: this includes its T1- and T2-characteristics as well its
enhancement pattern.
- Non-masslike enhancement are areas of enhancement without a detectable three-
dimensional mass.
Features of non-mass enhancement include its distribution, its internal
enhancement pattern, and whether the enhancement is symmetric or asymmetric.
Masses
Shape
A mass can be round, oval, lobulated, or irregular.
Lobulated masses have undulating contours.
Irregular masses have an uneven shape that cannot be characterized as round, oval, or
lobulated.
If a mass is irregularly shaped, it has a 32% chance of being malignant.
The image on the left shows a large, irregular mass, which proved to be an angiosarcoma.
The image on the far left is a juvenile fibroadenoma - it is oval in shape and has smooth
margins, i.e. typically benign.
The non-enhancing septations are not seen in this case.
The image on the right is another example of a fibroadenoma: a lobulated mass with non-
enhancing septations.
Margin
Margins can be described as smooth, irregular, or spiculated .
Spiculated margins are frequently a feature of malignant breast lesions and radial scars.
If a mass has spiculated margins, it has an 80% chance of being malignant.
On the left is an image showing a large, round mass withsmooth margins, which turned out to
be an epidermal inclusion cyst.
The image on the far left shows a spiculated mass, i.e. 80% chance of being malignant. .
Next to it the corresponding gross pathologic specimen.
You can see the spiculations invading the surrounding tissue in both.
Just like on mammography, this lesion is has a high likelihood of malignancy and would be
labelled BIRADS 5.
The image on the far left shows an irregularly shaped mass with irregular margins, which was
an invasive ductal carcinoma.
The image on the right shows a similarly irregularly shaped and irregularly marginated
lesion, this time an adenoid cystic carcinoma.
LEFT: Fibroadenoma with non-enhancing septations. RIGHT: Invasive carcinoma with enhancing septations
High signal on T1
The pre-contrast T1, non fat-suppressed sequence can show the presence of fat in a lesion.
Central high signal on a T1-weighted image can be seen in intramammary lymph nodes or fat
necrosis.
Fat is also seen in hamartomas.
The image on the left shows an example of a fat-containing hamartoma in the breast.
Breast lesions containing fat are benign unless they are rapidly growing.
Rapidly growing lesions should be biopsied.
On the image on the left there are multiple rounded areas in both breasts.
These are multiple cysts.
Fibroadenoma (left) and a colloid carcinoma (right). Both are bright on T2WI.
The image on the far left shows a round lesion with bright signal on T2.
This is a a fibroadenoma.
On the right is an example of a colloid carcinoma in a breast with dense, glandular tissue.
It is the exception to the rule that all things with bright signal on T2 fat-suppressed images
are benign.
1. Homogeneous
enhancement i
s uniform and
confluent
enhancement
throughout
the mass.
2. Heterogeneou
s
enhancement i
s nonuniform
enhancement,
which varies
within the
mass.
3. Rim
enhancement i
s
enhancement
mainly
concentrated
at the
periphery of
the mass. This
type of
enhancement
is frequently a
feature of
high-grade
invasive
ductal cancer,
fat necrosis,
and
inflammatory
cysts. A lesion
with rim
enhancement
that is not a
typical cyst
has a 40%
chance of
malignancy.
4. Dark internal
septations refe
rs to non-
enhancing
septations in
an enhancing
mass. These
are typical for
fibroadenoma
s, especially
when the
lesion has
smooth or
lobulated
margins.
5. Enhancing
internal
septations are
usually a
feature of
malignancy.
6. Central
enhancement i
s pronounced
enhancement
of a nidus
within an
enhancing
mass. Central
enhancement
has been
associated
with high-
grade ductal
cancer.
Central
enhancement
has been
associated
with high-
grade ductal
cancer.
Homogeneous enhancement
The image on the left shows a homogeneously enhancing lesion.
This proved to be an invasive ductal carcinoma.
Invasive lobular carcinoma with heterogenous enhancement
Heterogenous enhancement
On the left, the image shows an irregularly shaped mass with spiculations and a
heterogeneous internal enhancement pattern, which proved to be an invasive lobular
carcinoma.
Rim enhancement
The image on the left shows rim enhancement of a lesion invading the surrounding tissue in a
case of invasive ductal carcinoma.
Type 1 curve with slow rise and a continued rise with tim
Temporal Resolution - Kinetic Analysis (Curves)
First we look at the initial upslope of the curve during the first one to two minutes.
This is either slow, medium or rapid.
Then there is the delayed portion - two minutes or more after the injection of contrast.
This part of the curve shows either an increase, plateau or washout.
The kinetic analysis takes about six minutes of repetitive scanning in total and can lead to
three types of curve.
Type 1
On the image on the left is a type 1 curve.
There is a slow rise and a continued rise with time.
A lesion with a type 1 curve has a chance of 6% of being malignant.
Type 3 curve with rapid initial rise, followed by washout in the delayed phase
Type 3
The type 3 curve shows a rapid initial rise, followed by a drop-off with time (washout) in the
delayed phase.
A lesion with this type of curve is malignant in 29-77%.
This is the red on the CAD (Computer Aided Detection).
Type 2
Then there is the type 2 curve, which is in the middle: a slow or rapid initial rise followed by
a plateau in the delayed phase, which is allowed a variance of 10% up or down.
The chance of a lesion with a type 2 curve being malignant lies somewhere between the 6%
of the type 1 curve and the 29-77% of the type 3 curve.
Many physicians will biopsy lesions with type 2 curves.
The images on the left show a large, abnormally enhancing area in the left breast.
The CAD has detected some very small areas with type 3 washout (in red).
When you look at CAD images, take note of the worst (red) areas.
This was a large invasive ductal carcinoma.
Non-mass
enhancement
Distribution
The table on the left summarizes the terms used to describe the distribution of non-mass
enhancement in the breast.
Focal refers to non-mass enhancement in less than 25% of a quadrant of the breast.
Ductal involvement is enhancement in a ductal distribution, and is cancer in 60% of cases.
Linear enhancement is similar to ductal enhancement, but does not have a ductal orientation.
This finding means cancer in 31% of cases.
Segmental enhancement refers to multiple ducts and has a 78% chance of being cancer.
Regional enhancement is not ductal or segmental but larger than focal and is cancer in 21%.
Diffuse non-mass enhancement is typically benign.
Focal DCIS
The image on the left shows a mass as well as areas of linear non-mass enhancement.
This proved to be linear DCIS with an invasive ductal carcinoma.
LEFT: Heterogeneous
change (arrows) enhancement in invasive ductal carcinomaRIGHT: Punctate enhancement in a hamartoma with fibrocystic
Internal Enhancement Pattern - Nonmass
Clumped enhancement
Clumped enhancement is the most important non-mass enhancing pattern to recognize.
It has a 60% chance of cancer (typically DCIS).
On the left two examples of clumped enhancement in DCIS.
Associated
findings
Skin or nipple
involvement
Chest wall
invasion
Adenopathy
The image on the left shows a relatively small carcinoma in the right breast, with extensive
thickening of the skin.
The image on the left shows a large inflammatory carcinoma with diffuse thickening of the
skin.
The image on the left shows a large enhancing lymph node on the right.
Specific breast
tumors
Cysts
Classic fibroadenoma
Fibroadenoma
Fibroadenomas are the most common benign breast lesions after cysts. In order to be certain a
lesion is a fibroadenoma, certain criteria must be met:
Benign
morphologic
characteristics
Non-
enhancing
septations
Type 1 curve
On the far left is another example of a fibroadenoma with clear non-enhancing septations.
These septations are also visible on the gross pathology.
Two examples of a hamartoma with dark areas of fat on a fat suppressed T1WI with Gd.
Fat containing lesions
The pre-contrast T1, non fat-suppressed sequence can show the presence of fat in a lesion.
High signal on a T1-weighted image can be seen in intramammary lymph nodes, fat necrosis
and hamartomas.
DCIS
Kinetics are usually not useful in DCIS, especially not in cases when low-grade.
Many cases of DCIS show no washout and usually there is slow initial enhancement.
The distribution of the enhancement however is important.
DCIS typically shows clumped, ductal, linear or segmental non-mass enhancement.
On the left a patient with areas of non-mass enhancement in both breasts (DCIS).
There is a small enhancing mass medially in the left breast, which was a small invasive
carcinoma.
The image on the left shows an enhancing mass in the left breast.
This proved to be an invasive carcinoma.
Lateral to it is an area of ductal non-mass enhancement, which proved to be DCIS.
DCIS bilaterally
DCIS bilaterally
Most invasive carcinoma are ductal, some are lobular, and there is a group of rarer types.
Regardless of the type of cancer, they typically appear on breast MRI as an irregularly
shaped, spiculated mass with rim- or heterogeneous enhancement after the administration of
intravenous gadolinium.
The image on the far left shows an irregular mass with some ductal extension, and on the
right an irregular mass extending to the chest wall, but not invading it.
There is no chest wall enhancement.
Invasive lobular carcinoma is one of the types of cancer that does not always show a lot of
enhancement on breast MRI, which can make it difficult to diagnose.
In these two cases however, this was not a problem.
Colloid carcinoma
Colloid carcinoma
Metaplastic carcinoma
Metaplastic carcinoma
On the left an example of a metaplastic carcinoma with rim-enhancement. This is not
necessarily a typical presentation. There is a small area of stromal fibrosis laterally in the left
breast.
13. Breast Lesions Detected on MR Imaging: Features and Positive Predictive Value
by Laura Liberman et al
AJR 2002; 179:171-178
14. Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Breast: Opportunities to Improve Breast Cancer
Management
REVIEW ARTICLE by Nola Hylton.
Journal of Clinical Oncology, Vol 23, No 8 (March 10), 2005: pp. 1678-1684