Peak Enhancement and Time to Peak Enhancement May Differentiate Mammographically and Sonographically Occult Breast Malignancies from Normal Enhancing Breast Parenchyma

Amy Melsaether¹, Nathaniel Margolis¹, Alana R. Amarosa¹, Melanie Moccaldi¹, Samantha Heller¹, Sungheon Kim¹, Linda Moy¹

Dynamic contrast enhanced breast MRI can detect breast cancers that are occult on mammography and sonography. The enhancement pattern of such cancers relative to breast parenchyma has never been quantified. We compared 21 mammographically and sonographically occult breast cancers to control areas of parenchyma. In malignant lesions compared to controls, there was a shorter time to peak and a greater peak enhancement, but no significant difference in signal enhancement ratio. Our findings suggest that time to peak and peak enhancement can help differentiate benign breast parenchyma from otherwise occult malignant lesions, possibly reducing the need for biopsy.