Nuclear magnetic resonance studies on human breast dysplasias and neoplasms.

The ability of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to distinguish normal, diseased non-neoplastic, and neoplastic human breast tissues was investigated with T1 and T2 relaxation times used. The results indicated that NMR relaxation times could distinguish between the mean values of breast neoplasms and other diseased or normal tissues, with P values less than 0.001. Given a single sample, the probability of classifying it nonneoplastic or carcinoma could be accomplished with 85% confidence. For human breast tissues, the relaxation time T2 may be more discriminating that T1. These results support the view that the use of NMR spectroscopy in cancer detection may be of significant value and warrants considerable more interest and effort to determine the beneficial applications and limits of this technology.