The comparison between young and old patients and the prognostic roles of magnetic resonance imaging-related parameter characteristics in young patients-a retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND

Breast dynamic enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an important in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. However, it is unclear whether the characteristics of breast dynamic enhancement MRI-related parameters in young breast cancer patients are specific. The present study was to study the dynamic enhancement of MRI-related parameter characteristics and its correlation with clinical features in young breast cancer patients.

METHODS

A total of 196 breast cancer patients admitted to the People's Hospital of Zhaoyuan City from January 2017 to December 2017 were retrospectively collected, and the patients were divided into a young breast cancer group (n=56) and a control group (n=140) according to whether the patient age limit of <40 years old. All patients underwent breast dynamic enhanced MRI and were followed up for 5 years to observe whether there was recurrence or metastasis. We compared the differences of breast dynamic enhanced MRI-related parameters between the 2 groups, and then analyzed the correlation between breast dynamic enhancement MRI-related parameters and clinical features in young breast cancer patients.

RESULTS

Compared with the control group, the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of the young breast cancer group was significantly reduced (0.84±0.13 . 0.93±0.14 ×10 mm/s, P<0.001); the proportion of patients with non-mass enhancement was significantly increased in the young breast cancer group (25.00% . 8.57%, P=0.002). The ADC was significantly positively correlated with age (r=0.226, P=0.001) and negatively correlated with the maximum diameter of the tumor (r=-0.199, P=0.005). The ADC was shown to be valuable in predicting the absence of lymph node metastasis in the young breast cancer patients, and the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.817 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.702-0.932, P<0.001]. The ADC was shown to be valuable in predicting the absence of recurrence or metastasis in the young breast cancer patients, and the AUC was 0.784 (95% CI: 0.630-0.937, P=0.007). The rates of lymph node metastasis and recurrence at 5 years were significantly increased in young breast cancer patients with non-mass enhancement (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The present study provides a reference for further evaluation of the characteristics of young breast cancer patients.