The Potentials and Role of Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Evaluating the Efficiency of Antitumor Treatment of Patients with Breast Liver Metastasis

Abstract

Objective. To compare the informative value of using dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) in patients with breast liver metastasis during chemotherapy.Material and methods. The investigation enrolled 30 patients with breast liver metastasis during their treatment. The results of standard intravenous contrast-enhanced abdominal MRI studies (by evaluating the liver in the arterial, venous, and delayed phases) were compared with those of DW-MRI with different B-factor values (50, 400 and 800 sec/mm2).Results. Comparison of the findings of initial studies prior to chemotherapy (those of only dynamic intravenous contrast-enhanced MRI and only DW-MRI) revealed a complete correspondence with the number of detected foci in 10 patients. Ten patients had a larger number of metastatic foci at DW-MRI than at intravenous contrast-enhanced MRI, in the aggregate by 44 foci more (of them 36 foci measured less than 1 cm). The remaining 10 of the 30 patients were found to have multiple, unquantifiable (more than 20–40) metastatic foci of various sizes (1–6 cm) at both intravenous contrast-enhanced MRI and DW-MRI. Nineteen of the 30 patients were followed up during their chemotherapy. Seven of the 19 patients showed a stabilized liver metastatic process that was similarly evidenced by both techniques. Eleven of the 19 patients were observed to have a progressive metastatic process that was reflected by the similar increase in the number and size of metastases in 5 of the 11 patients, as shown by both of the above techniques. In the remaining 6 of the 11 patients, the number of newly detected liver tumors proved to be larger at DW-MRI than at intravenous contrast-enhanced MRI. Both techniques showed that the last patient of the 19 cases had a decrease in the number of small liver metastases that maintained their sizes (less than 1 cm).Conclusion. DW-MRI has been shown to be much more effective in detecting metastases than conventional intravenous contrast-enhanced MRI, which necessitates the inclusion of this technique in standard abdominal MRI protocols for patients with liver metastasis.