Apparent diffusion coefficient value in invasive ductal carcinoma at 3.0 Tesla: is it correlated with prognostic factors?

Objective: To investigate the correlation between apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and prognostic factors in patients with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Methods: 48 lesions belonging to 47 patients with histopathologically proven IDC were examined using conventional MR and diffusion-weighted imaging at a 3.0-T system. All of the patients had modified radical mastectomies or breast-sparing surgery plus axillary lymph node dissection. The ADC values acquired from the ADC maps consisted of six different b-values (0, 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 1500 smm(-2)) and were compared with the patients' ages, tumour size, histological grade of the lesions, tumour localization, lesions' distance to skin surface and nipples, the existence of axillary lymph node involvement, the number of involved axillary lymph nodes, oestrogen/progesterone receptor status, peritu-moral lymphovascular invasion status and the existence of human epidermal growth factor 2 (c-erbB-2) overexpression. Results: A statistically significant relationship was found regarding axillary lymph node involvement (p = 0.027), and oestrogen/progesterone receptor status (p = 0.013). No significant relationship was detected regarding other prognostic factors (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Among various prognostic factors, ADC values were significantly correlated with only axillary lymph node positivity and oestrogen/progesterone receptor status. Advances in knowledge: In the present study, the relationship between ADC values of IDC lesions that are acquired at a high magnetic field (3.0 T) system by using multiple b-values and some specific prognostic factors that were not evaluated before in the medical literature was investigated.