ArticleBMC cancer2025
Impact of breast tumor size discrepancy between contrast-enhanced and conventional ultrasonography on axillary node metastasis: a retrospective cohort study.
Article in BMC cancer, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
backgroundConventional ultrasonography (cUS) and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) are used to evaluate breast cancer tumors and axillary lymph nodes (ALN), by which the treatment strategy for breast cancer is determined. A breast tumor size discrepancy on CEUS compared with cUS is often observed, for which the reasons are unclear. We hypothesized that this discrepancy reflects the metastatic potential, and this study investigated the association between size discrepancies on cUS and CEUS in relation to ALN metastasis in breast cancer.
methodsThis retrospective study enrolled 259 patients who underwent surgery for breast cancer after preoperative cUS and CEUS examinations. Patients were grouped into a DISCR (i.e., tumor size discrepancy ≥ 4.0 mm between CEUS and cUS measurements) and non-DISCR group. The primary outcome was ALN metastasis, defined by pathological evaluation. Secondary outcomes were the 5-year recurrence-free survival rates.
resultsThere were 94 patients in the DISCR and 165 in the non-DISCR groups. No tumor size differences measured by cUS were observed between two groups (p = 0.82), whereas the DISCR group had a significantly higher rate of ALN metastasis (p < 0.01). Multivariate analyses showed a discrepancy of ≥ 4.0 mm was a risk for ALN metastasis (odds ratio: 5.838, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.408-14.155). The 5-year recurrence-free survival rate was lower in the DISCR (0.750, 95% CI: 0.632-0.868) than in the non-DISCR (0.924, 95% CI; 0.870-0.978) group.
conclusionAn increase in contrast-enhanced ultrasonography tumor size is helpful for assessing axillary lymph node metastasis and prognosis.
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