Breast magnetic resonance imaging patterns of tumor regression after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and immunotherapy in early triple-negative breast cancer patients: prediction of pathological response and performance of ultrafast sequences.

BACKGROUND

Immunotherapy with pembrolizumab combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy allows an improvement of pathological complete response rate in triple-negative breast cancer patients. The objective of the study is to evaluate the correlation between breast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings and pathological response after NAC and immunotherapy. It also aims to compare the performances of an abbreviated protocol using ultrafast MRI (UF-MRI) sequences with that of full-protocol MRI (fpMRI).

METHODS

We conducted a single-center study including both retrospectively and prospectively triple-negative breast cancer patients, receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy and pembrolizumab between May 2022 and June 2023. Breast MRI, including UF-MRI sequences, was performed to evaluate tumor response. These results were compared to those of postoperative pathological response.

RESULTS

Among the 36 patients included, 23 obtained pathological complete response. Herein, fpMRI protocol detected 18 complete tumor reduction, reflecting a sensitivity of 0.78 and a specificity of 0.69. The UF-MRI sequences alone showed 19 complete regressions of tumor with a sensitivity of 0.83 and with identical specificity. The agreement between the two MRI protocols was 0.96.

CONCLUSION

The addition of immunotherapy to NAC does not prevent accurate MRI findings and tumor response prediction. Furthermore, the analysis of UF-MRI sequences as a stand-alone technique seems to be as efficient as the analysis of fpMRI, suggesting that abbreviated breast MRI could be incorporated into routine clinical practice.