Abstract

Objective: This study investigated whether Background Parenchymal Enhancement (BPE) on imaging is valuable in determining pathological tumour response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) amongst breast cancer patients in a tertiary-care hospital Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Methods: Retrospective data from 64 patients with invasive breast cancer who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) between 2015 and 2020 were analysed. Each patient underwent a pre-NAC Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) study which was used to assess BPE grading, and Ultrasound (US) imaging before and after the NAC treatment to assess patients that received a pathological complete response (pCR) to the treatment. Pre-NAC BPE was compared with achieving pCR to evaluate if there is an association between them. Subgroup analysis based on menopausal status and molecular subtype of breast cancer was also performed.

Results: 17 out of 64 patients received a pathological complete response (pCR). Chi squared test was performed to evaluate an association between pre-NAC BPE and pCR and p value was found to be 0.910. These results are not statistically significant. On subgroup analysis, pre-menopausal status was found to be associated with achieving pCR. On analysis based on molecular subtype of the breast cancer, there was no correlation with achieving pCR.

Conclusion: There is no association found between pre-treatment Background Parenchymal Enhancement on MRI and tumour response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and hence it cannot be used as a biomarker to predict pathological tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.