AJR:194, May 2010
Mitsuhiro Tozaki, Kazuei Hoshi
OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this article is to assess the histologic prognostic relevance of choline levels obtained using 1H MR spectroscopy with a 1.5-T MR unit in patients with invasive breast cancer and to compare the observed choline levels with the standardized up¬take value obtained using FDG PET.
MATERIALS AND METHODS. Single-voxel 1H MR spectroscopy and PET/CT were performed for 50 patients with invasive ductal carcinoma (1.5-3 cm in size). The normalized choline signal was calculated using an external standard method.
RESULTS. Proton MR spectroscopy detected the presence of choline in 44 cases. The average normalized choline signal was 1.1 (range, 0-3.9). The average standardized uptake value was 6.5 (range, 1.1-23). The correlation (r) between the normalized choline signal and the standardized uptake value was 0.52 (p < 0.0001). The normalized choline signal was sig¬nificantly correlated with nuclear grade (p = 0.0002), triple-negative breast cancer status (p = 0.0009), and estrogen receptor negativity (p = 0.007). The standardized uptake value was significantly correlated with nuclear grade (p = 0.0002), estrogen receptor negativity (p = 0.002), and triple-negative breast cancer status (p = 0.009). No significant differences were found between the progesterone receptor-positive and negative groups or between the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive and negative groups.
CONCLUSION. The choline levels obtained using 1H MR spectroscopy with a 1.5-T unit were well correlated with the standardized uptake value obtained using PET/CT and with the histologic prognostic parameters (nuclear grade, estrogen receptor status, and triple-negative lesion status).