Priya Kumar Sareen1, Ava Kwong2,3, Debra M. Ikeda4, Catherine Klifa5
1Breast Imaging, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 2Consulting Assistant Professor, Department of Breast Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 3Chief of Breast Surgery Division, University of Hong Kong Medical Centre, Hong Kong; 4Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 5Radiology, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA
There is a well-described correlation between mammographic density and breast cancer risk. Chinese women in Hong Kong (HK) have been shown to have dense breasts. MRI used as tool to measure breast density eliminates the radiation dose and uses 3D information. We utilized a semiautomatic 3D fuzzy C-means segmentation technique to quantify breast tissue and total breast volume from the patients MRIs, to determine MR breast density, and compared it to mammogram density and pattern. 2D mammography predicted breast densities at least twice greater than that measured by the MR quantitative method. MRI may be more accurate than mammography in calculating the percent of actual fibroglandular tissue relative to the total breast volume in women with dense breasts.