Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) and DCE-MRI (Dynamic Contrast Enhanced-MRI) are the most useful sequences to study breast cancer on MRI. DWI acquisition represents the diffusion or motion of water molecules in a voxel due to Brownian motion. Hyperintense areas in DWI correspond to restricted diffusion of water molecules determined by tissue properties (e.s lipophilic cell membranes in normal tissues), tissues with a high cellular density (e.s. breast cancer) and water molecules in the...

Patients population: in our retrospective study we enrolled 50 patients with histological diagnosis of breast cancer by core needle biopsy before NACT . They underwent two breast MRI exam in the period from June 2015 to October 2018, one before the fist NACT administration and the other after 2-3 chemotherapy cycles, about 6 months after the first MRI exam/ corresponding about at 6 months later than the first MRI exam . According to the histological classification of breast cancer, our 50...

Breast volumes: 2 patients showed no response to chemotherapy. 38 patients showed a response to chemotherapy and were divided into three responders groups: complete responders, responders with reduction of tumor lesions >80% and responders with reduction of tumor lesions < 80%. At 1.5 tesla scanner 28 patients were evaluated : 9 patients had complete regression of breast cancer, 7 patients had a volume reduction of breast lesion > 80% and 12 patients had a volume reduction of breast tumor...

Altough the limitation of a small study population, our results demonstrate that Fusion technique to evaluate ADC values before and after NACT represents an efficient tool for defining the efficacy of chemotherapy.

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