Human in-vivo 31P MR Spectroscopy of Benign and Malignant Breast Tumors

OBJECTIVE To assess the potential clinical utility of in-vivo 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in patients with various malignant and benign breast lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS Seventeen patients with untreated primary malignant breast lesions (group I), eight patients with untreated benign breast lesions (group II) and seven normal breasts (group III) were included in this study. In-vivo 31P MRS was performed using a 1.5 Tesla MR scanner. Because of the characteristics of the coil, the volume of the tumor had to exceed 12 cc (3 x 2 x 2 cm), with a superoinferior diameter at least 3 cm. Mean and standard deviations of each metabolite were calculated and metabolite ratios, such as PME/PCr, PDE/PCr, T-ATP/PCr and PCr/T-ATP were calculated and statistically analyzed. RESULTS Significant differences in PME were noted between groups I and III (p=0.0213), and between groups II and III (p=0.0213). The metabolite ratios which showed significant differences were PME/PCr (between groups II and III) (p=0.0201), PDE/PCr (between groups I and III, and between groups II and III) (p=0.0172), T-ATP/PCr (between groups II and III) (p=0.0287), and PCr/T-ATP (between groups II and III) (p=0.0287). There were no significant parameters between groups I and II. CONCLUSION In-vivo 31P MRS is not helpful for establishing a differential diagnosis between benign and malignant breast lesions, at least with relatively large lesions greater than 3 cm in one or more dimensions.