The role of Diffusion Weighted Imaging MRI in discrimination between benign and malignant axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer patients

Abstract

Axillary lymph node metastasis is common in breast cancer that affecting both treatment and prognosis of the disease. Surgical axillary lymph node clearance is associated with many complications such as lymphedema, numbness, pain, and impaired mobility of the arm. Most of the patients with early-stage breast cancer have benign axillary lymph nodes so many patients were overtreated with this approach. The main goal for preoperative imaging is to recognize the presence of node metastasis with a high positive predictive value which is high enough for the surgeon to do ALND. In the current study we included 44 axillary lymph nodes from 29 patients with suspicious breast lesion on the same side (26 axillae with one lymph node & 9 with two lymph nodes). These nodes were evaluated by conventional MRI and DW-MRI. Two different b-values were used (0 and 750) s/mm². ADC maps were automatically calculated.