Modelling Vascularity in Breast Cancer and Surrounding Stroma Using Diffusion MRI and Intravoxel Incoherent Motion

摘要

Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has shown variation in the stroma with distance from the tumor and this correlates with histological microvessel density. To date, however, conventional diffusion MRI has demonstrated limited sensitivity to these changes. This study modelled the diffusion signal by intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) to obtain parameters related to the vasculature and tissue diffusion. This revealed a small vascular contribution to the signal in tumor and peri-tumoral stroma within 8 mm. Monoexponential fitting performed worse than the IVIM model in tumor and stroma within 8 mm, but was sufficient in more distal stromal regions where lower microvessel density is expected. Modelling diffusion MRI by IVIM provided a measure of vascularity that may complement information from DCE-MRI and yielded additional information about diffusion in the extravascular tissue.