It is possible to differentiate ductal carcinoma in situ from invasive ductal carcinoma using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, according to research presented this week.

It is possible to differentiate ductal carcinoma in situ from invasive ductal carcinoma using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI), according to research presented this week at the 50th annual meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine in Houston, Texas.

"At the University of Chicago, we have developed our own breast MRI computer-aided diagnosis workstation that automatically analyzes DCE-MRI images of breast lesions using kinetic and morphological features," Neha Bhooshan, a graduate student at the University working under the direction of Dr. Maryellen Giger, told Reuters Health.

The computer program compares and contrasts seven such features in breast MRI scans taken before and after the administration of contrast to accurately characterize the tumor subtype.

The researchers used the system to analyze DCE-MRI scans of 131 benign and 203 malignant breast lesions, including 79 lesions pathologically diagnosed as ductal carcinoma in situ and 124 diagnosed as invasive ductal carcinoma.

"We were able to tell ductal carcinoma in situ lesions separately from invasive ductal carcinoma and benign lesions," said Bhooshan. "Previous studies have only looked at distinguishing malignant and benign lesions."

"Distinguishing ductal carcinoma in situ lesions from invasive ductal carcinoma using selected features gave an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.95," the team writes in a meeting abstract.

"AUC values of 0.85 and 0.87 were obtained in differentiating between ductal carcinoma in situ and benign lesions, and between invasive ductal carcinoma and benign lesions with merged features, respectively," they further report.

"Being able to identify precancerous ductal carcinoma in situ lesions early on may influence treatment planning and prognosis of the patient," Bhooshan said.

"We hope to look at other types of breast carcinoma including invasive lobular carcinoma to see if we can further characterize different types of breast carcinoma as well as look at other properties of breast lesions such as biomarkers and grade," the investigator added.

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