PURPOSE

To prospectively investigate ultrasound-guided diffuse optical tomography (US-guided DOT) in predicting breast cancer response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Eighty-eight breast cancer patients, with a total of 93 lesions, were included in our study. Pre- and post-last chemotherapy, size and total hemoglobin concentration (THC) of each lesion were measured by conventional US and US-guided DOT 1 day before biopsy (time point t0, THC THC0, SIZE S0) and 1 to 2 days before surgery (time point tL, THCL, SL). The relative changes in THC and SIZE of lesions after the first and last NAC cycles were considered as the variables ΔTHC and ΔSIZE. Receiver operating characteristic curve was performed to calculate ΔTHC and ΔSIZE cutoff values to evaluate pathologic response of 93 breast cancers to NAC, which were then prospectively used to predicate response of 61 breast cancers to NAC.

RESULTS

The cutoff values of ΔTHC and ΔSIZE for evaluation of breast cancers NAC treatment response were 23.9% and 42.6%. At ΔTHC 23.9%, the predicted treatment response in 61 breast lesions for the time points t1 to t3 was calculated by area under the curve (AUC), which were AUC 0.534 (P=.6668), AUC 0.604 (P=.1893), and AUC 0.674(P =. 0.027), respectively; for ΔSIZE 42.6%, at time points t1 to t3, AUC 0.505 (P=.9121), AUC 0.645 (P=.0115), and AUC 0.719 (P=.0018).

CONCLUSION

US-guided DOT ΔTHC 23.9% and US ΔSIZE 42.6% can be used for the response evaluation and earlier prediction of the pathological response after three rounds of chemotherapy.