Health science reports
Advancing Early Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Ki-67 Expression Prediction With Ultrasound Viscoelastography: Based on Peritumoral Assessment
By Huang X, Zhang B, Chen F and 5 others.
Abstract
Background
Breast cancer is the most common invasive malignancy in women. Ultrasound viscoelastography may improve non-invasive diagnosis, but the clinical relevance of peritumoral viscoelastic parameters (VPs) and their correlation with Ki-67 remain unclear. This study explores these associations.
Methods
A prospective study enrolled 256 breast masses (156 malignant, 100 benign). Patients underwent conventional ultrasound and viscoelastography. VPs were acquired within masses (A), peritumoral shells (Shell1: 1 mm, Shell2: 2 mm, Shell3: 3 mm), and combined regions (A' = A + Shell). Quantitative metrics included elasticity (V/1 E, V/0 E), dispersion coefficient (V/1 D), viscosity coefficient (V/0 V), and their maximum (Max), minimum (Min), mean(Mean), and standard deviation (SD) values. Diagnostic performance was evaluated by analyzing the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and calculating the area under the curve (AUC), followed by logistic regression. VPs were compared between high/low Ki-67 groups.