Abstract
Quantitative measures of radiation-induced breast stiffness are required to support clinical studies of novel breast radiotherapy regimens and exploration of personalised therapy, however, variation between shear-wave elastography (SWE) machines may limit the usefulness of shear-wave speed (cs) for this purpose. Mean cs measured in four healthy volunteers’ breasts and a phantom using 2D-SWE machines Acuson S2000 (Siemens Medical Solutions) and Aixplorer (Supersonic Imagine) were compared. Shear-wave speed was measured in the skin region, subcutaneous adipose tissue and parenchyma. cs estimates were on average 2.3% greater when using the Aixplorer compared to S2000 in vitro. In vivo, cs estimates were on average 43.7%, 36.3% and 49.9% significantly greater (p << 0.01) when using the Aixplorer compared to S2000, for skin region, subcutaneous adipose tissue and parenchyma, respectively. In conclusion, despite relatively small differences between machines observed in vitro, large differences in absolute measures of shear wave speed measured were observed in vivo, which may prevent pooling of cross-machine data in clinical studies of the breast.
Highlights
Breast-conserving surgical local excision, followed by radiotherapy (RT) to improve local control and survival, is a successful treatment for early breast cancer
We investigate the difference in cs measured using two machines that provide 2D-shear-wave elastography (SWE), the Aixplorer® (Supersonic Imagine, Aix-en-Provence, France) and the Acuson S2000® (Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Erlangen, Germany)
Aixplorer gave between 0.2% to 3.06% greater cs estimates than the S2000
Summary
Breast-conserving surgical local excision, followed by radiotherapy (RT) to improve local control and survival, is a successful treatment for early breast cancer. 31,000 women receive adjuvant breast RT in the UK per year with local relapse rates as low as ~6% at 10 years [1]. Given that many women are surviving decades beyond their breast cancer treatment, a priority now is to reduce the long-term side effects of radiotherapy to the breast. The overall cosmetic outcome has been shown to be an important factor influencing patient psychosocial morbidity after treatment [2]. Aixplorer: cs estimates Observer 1 Mean CV (ms−1 ) Mean (SD). Symmetric percentage differences in cs estimates (%) −0.99
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