Charles S. Springer1, 2, Ian J. Tagge1, Xin Li1, Luminita A. Tudorica1, 3, Sunitha B. Thakur4, 5, Karen Y. Oh3, Elizabeth A. Morris5, Nicole Roy<sup
1Advanced Imaging Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States; 2Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States; 3Diagnostic Radiology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States; 4Medical Physics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, United States; 5Radiology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, United States; 6Biomedical Engineering, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States
A meta-population of 163 human breast tumors in vivo was studied by shutter-speed DCE-MRI. This spans three institutions, two magnetic field strengths, three instrument vendors, two initial screening modalities, three Gd contrast agents, and 21 lesion types. When the value of Ktrans is plotted vs. kep for all, a "threshold" behavior is manifest. The 120 benign lesion points are very tightly clustered near the origin, while the 43 malignant tumor values are strongly correlated, and some reach very large values. It is possible this is a manifestation of the metabolic "angiogenic switch" preceding breast tumor progression.