Ultrasound Imaging for Detecting Metastasis to Level II and III Axillary Lymph Nodes after Axillary Lymph Node Dissection for Invasive Breast Cancer

The prognostic value of the histological shape of tumor negative sentinel nodes in breast cancer

Introduction

Sentinel lymph node (SLN) metastasis is an important predictor of prognosis in breast cancer (BC) patients, guiding treatment decisions. However, patients with the same BC subtype and tumor negative SLN (SLNneg) can have different survival outcomes. We hypothesized that the host anti-tumor immune reaction in SLNneg is important and results in morphometrically measurable changes in SLN size or shape which are related to patient prognosis.

Methods

Surface area, circumference, long axis and short axis were histologically measured in 694 SLNneg from 356 cases of invasive BC and 67 ductal carcinoma in situ cases. The area occupied by fat was categorized as less or more than 50%. The long to short axis (L/S) ratio was calculated. The relationship between SLNneg morphometries and clinicopathological variables like tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) within the primary tumor, as well as prognosis at 10 years follow up were analyzed.

Results

The mean SLNneg surface area was 78.7mm2, circumference 40.3mm, long axis 13.1mm, short axis 8.2mm and L/S ratio 1.7. Larger surface area, long axis and short axis, including age >55 years were associated with higher body mass index (BMI) and SLN fat over 50% (p<0.003). In invasive BC, a high SLNneg L/S ratio (≥1.9) was related to poorer disease-free (HR=1.805, 95%CI 1.182-2.755, p=0.006) and overall (HR=2.389, 95%CI 1.481-3.851, p<0.001) survival. A low SLNneg L/S ratio (<1.9) was associated with high TILs in the primary BC (≥10%) (p=0.005). However a high TIL count was not of prognostic relevance.

Conclusions

This is the first study to suggest that morphometric characteristics of axillary SLNneg, like L/S ratio, could be used to predict prognosis in patients with SLNneg invasive BC of all subtypes. The association between low L/S ratio and high TILs suggest that SLN shape is related to immunological functioning of the SLN and could be used in addition to TIL evaluation. Regarding the dubious role of TILs in hormone receptor positive breast cancer, SLNneg morphometry to gain information about host immune status could especially be of benefit in this subtype. Further studies are warranted to better understand the underlying biological mechanisms.

Artificial intelligence-aided method to detect uterine fibroids in ultrasound images: a retrospective study

We explored a new artificial intelligence-assisted method to assist junior ultrasonographers in improving the diagnostic performance of uterine fibroids and further compared it with senior ultrasonographers to confirm the effectiveness and feasibility of the artificial intelligence method. In this retrospective study, we collected a total of 3870 ultrasound images from 667 patients with a mean age of 42.45 years ± 6.23 [SD] for those who received a pathologically confirmed diagnosis of uterine fibroids and 570 women with a mean age of 39.24 years ± 5.32 [SD] without uterine lesions from Shunde Hospital of Southern Medical University between 2015 and 2020. The DCNN model was trained and developed on the training dataset (2706 images) and internal validation dataset (676 images). To evaluate the performance of the model on the external validation dataset (488 images), we assessed the diagnostic performance of the DCNN with ultrasonographers possessing different levels of seniority. The DCNN model aided the junior ultrasonographers (Averaged) in diagnosing uterine fibroids with higher accuracy (94.72% vs. 86.63%, P < 0.001), sensitivity (92.82% vs. 83.21%, P = 0.001), specificity (97.05% vs. 90.80%, P = 0.009), positive predictive value (97.45% vs. 91.68%, P = 0.007), and negative predictive value (91.73% vs. 81.61%, P = 0.001) than they achieved alone. Their ability was comparable to that of senior ultrasonographers (Averaged) in terms of accuracy (94.72% vs. 95.24%, P = 0.66), sensitivity (92.82% vs. 93.66%, P = 0.73), specificity (97.05% vs. 97.16%, P = 0.79), positive predictive value (97.45% vs. 97.57%, P = 0.77), and negative predictive value (91.73% vs. 92.63%, P = 0.75). The DCNN-assisted strategy can considerably improve the uterine fibroid diagnosis performance of junior ultrasonographers to make them more comparable to senior ultrasonographers.

Best Practice Guideline - DEGUM Recommendations on Breast Ultrasound

For many years, breast ultrasound has been used in addition to mammography as an important method for clarifying breast findings. However, differences in the interpretation of findings continue to be problematic 1 2. These differences decrease the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound after detection of a finding and complicate interdisciplinary communication and the comparison of scientific studies 3. In 1999, the American College of Radiology (ACR) created a working group (International Expert Working Group) that developed a classification system for ultrasound examinations based on the established BI-RADS classification of mammographic findings under consideration of literature data 4. Due to differences in content, the German Society for Ultrasound in Medicine (DEGUM) published its own BI-RADS-analogue criteria catalog in 2006 3. In addition to the persistence of differences in content, there is also an issue with formal licensing with the current 5th edition of the ACR BI-RADS catalog, even though the content is recognized by the DEGUM as another system for describing and documenting findings. The goal of the Best Practice Guideline of the Breast Ultrasound Working Group of the DEGUM is to provide colleagues specialized in senology with a current catalog of ultrasound criteria and assessment categories as well as best practice recommendations for the various ultrasound modalities.

Differential Diagnosis Value of Shear-Wave Elastography for Superficial Enlarged Lymph Nodes

Objectives

To evaluate the diagnostic efficiency and diagnostic threshold of conventional US and shear-wave elastography (SWE) in superficial enlarged lymph nodes (LNs).

Methods

A total of 204 patients with superficial enlarged LNs were enrolled in this retrospective study aged 46.0 ± 15.2 years from March 2020 to March 2021. LNs with a long axis larger than 0.7 cm were considered as superficial enlarged. Before the histological biopsy, LNs that were considered suspicious according to both conventional US and SWE were included, while LNs with no or unclear pathological results, or with no satisfactory SWE images, were excluded. The conventional and 2-D SWE examinations were performed with Aplio i800 and Acuson sequoia equipped with i18LX5 linear-array transducer (5-18 MHz) and 10L4 linear-array transducer (4-10 MHz), respectively. Both E Median and Vs Median parameters were investigated by two senior ultrasound physicians. The pathological results were performed as the gold standard.

Results

Variables including transverse axis size, lymphatic hilum, L/T ratio, echogenicity, and color Doppler pattern were considered significant. The mean E Median value in benign, metastatic LNs, and lymphoma were 28.26 ± 8.87 kPa, 77.46 ± 22.85 kPa, and 50.37 ± 5.41 kPa (p <0.001), while Vs Median values were 3.02 ± 0.50 m/s, 4.87 ± 0.90 m/s, and 4.09 ± 0.22 m/s, respectively (p < 0.001). The diagnostic performance indicated the high sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and overall accuracy of conventional US combined with SWE. The optimal cutoff values of E Median and Vs Median for predicting malignant LNs were 42.90 kPa and 3.73 m/s, respectively. As AUC value, sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV, and NPV revealed, the indexes of E Median were 0.976, 0.927, 0.975, 0.946, 0.983, and 0.897, respectively, while Vs Median were 0.970, 0.927, 0.963, 0.941, 0.975, and 0.895, respectively (p <0.001). The ROC curves of both E Median (AUC=0.976) Vs Median (AUC=0.970) suggested the remarkable diagnostic efficiency in distinguishing benignity between suspected malignant LNs.

Conclusions

Above results indicated that conventional US together with 2-D SWE could elevate the diagnostic performance. Meanwhile, the parameters of 2-D SWE including E Median and Vs Median could effectively assess malignant LNs, which provide valuable differentiating information in superficial enlarged LNs.