Reliability of MRI in measuring the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients and its therapeutic implications

Abstract

Aim: Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) has recently been applied in treatment of operable breast cancers to enable breast conservation. We aimed to evaluate the accuracy of MRI in delineating residual tumor and pathological complete response (pCR). Patients & methods: 69 cases treated with NAC were monitored using breast MRI, findings were recorded and compared with histopathology. Results: MRI showed radiological complete response in 19 (27.5%), which correlated with pCR in 12 (63%) cases. However, five (7.3%) patients who achieved pCR were missed. Overall, the sensitivity was 70.6%, specificity 86.5%, positive predictive value 63.2% and negative predictive value of 90.0%. Conclusion: MRI showed promising results for evaluating response to NAC and predicting pCR, results need validation in larger trial.