Abstract PD2-11: Contrast-enhanced spectral mammography is comparable to MRI in the assessment of residual breast cancer following neoadjuvant systemic therapy
Authors: Hilal T , Covington M , Sugi M , Zhang N , Pockaj B , Northfelt D , Ocal IT , Patel BK 
Published: February 2018

OBJECTIVE: Currently, no study has assessed the performance of contrast-enhanced spectral mammography (CESM) in evaluating tumor response in breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST). This study aims to evaluate whether the accuracy of CESM is comparable to MRI in detection of residual breast cancer following NST.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective review of CESM cases at our institution between September 2014 and June 2016 identified patients who had both CESM and MRI pre- and post-NST with pathologic assessment after surgical management. Size of residual malignancy (if any) on post-neoadjuvant CESM and MRI was compared to surgical pathology (reference standard). Pathologic complete response (pCR) was documented and compared to Residual Cancer Burden (RCB) score for confirmation. Bland-Altman plots were used to visualize the differences between CESM/MRI and pathologic tumor size.

RESULTS: Forty female patients met inclusion criteria. Mean age was 52.3 years (range 35-73). Type of NST included: 34 (85%) chemotherapy and 6 (15%) endocrine therapy. Histological analysis showed invasive ductal carcinoma in 38 (95%), the remaining cases consisted of one invasive lobular carcinoma, and one mixed invasive carcinoma. Mean tumor size after NST was 10.3 mm (range 0-75 mm) for CESM and 9.7 mm (range 0-60 mm) for MRI compared to 15.7 mm (range 0-100 mm) on final surgical pathology. Equivalence tests demonstrated that the mean tumor size measured by CESM or by MRI is equivalent to the mean tumor size measured by pathology within -1 and 1 cm range (p=0.0132 for CESM and p=0.0194 for MRI).

Difference in Measurement Post-NST Compared to Pathology Path Tumor Size (mm)CESM Tumor Size (mm)MRI Tumor Size (mm)Mean (SD)15.7 (24.5)10.3 (18.9)9.7 (16.3)Difference Compared with Path (SD); P value -5.4 (12.6); 0.0132-6.0 (11.7); 0.0194

A complete radiologic response was seen in 25 CESM and 22 MRI cases which was confirmed by pathology in 17 and 14, respectively. Alternatively, CESM and MRI demonstrated residual disease in 15 patients and 18 patients respectively and this was confirmed on pathology in 15 and 15, respectively.

Accuracy of CESM vs. MRIModalityResidual Disease by Pathology (N=23)Complete Response by Pathology (N=17)SensitivitySpecificityPPVNPVResidual Disease by CESM (N=15)150Complete Response by CESM (N=25)81765.2%100%100%68%Residual Disease by MRI (N=18)153Complete Response by MRI (N=22)81465.2%82.4%83.3%63.6%

All patients who achieved a pCR had an RCB score of 0 indicating no residual cancer in lymph nodes. Among patients with residual disease, their mean RCB score was 2.6 (range 0.8-4.18).

CONCLUSION: In this study, CESM was comparable to MRI in assessing residual malignancy after completion of NST, thereby offering a potentially faster and less expensive alternative to MRI for monitoring treatment response in the neoadjuvant setting.

Citation Format: Hilal T, Covington M, Sugi M, Zhang N, Pockaj B, Northfelt D, Ocal IT, Patel BK. Contrast-enhanced spectral mammography is comparable to MRI in the assessment of residual breast cancer following neoadjuvant systemic therapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2017 Dec 5-9; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(4 Suppl):Abstract nr PD2-11.