Short T2* Components in the Normal Murine Mammary Gland and Pre-Invasive Carcinoma May Aid in Detection of Early Breast Cancer.

Sanaz Arkani Jansen¹, Xiaobing Fan, Erica Markiewicz, Gillian Newstead, Gregory Karczmar¹

The sensitivity and specificity of dynamic contrast enhanced MRI for ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), the earliest stage of breast cancer in which cancer cells are confined to mammary ducts, needs improvement. Relaxometry of DCIS is important for designing improved imaging methods, however is challenging to perform in women. Here, we use a transgenic mouse model of breast cancer to perform relaxometry of murine DCIS, invasive tumors and normal tissue. Interestingly, we find that normal tissue and DCIS exhibit biexponential decay and short T2* components, suggesting that imaging at shorter TE may help to improve clinical imaging of DCIS.