Can Color and Spectral Doppler Ultrasound of Breast Cancers Help to Predict the Immunohistochemistry profile?

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the relationship between color and spectral Doppler features of breast cancers and their biomarkers.

Patients and Methods: From January 2017 to January 2018, 43 patients with breast cancer were enrolled. Age, existence of color flow in the Doppler ultrasound, color flow pattern, tumor size, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) subtypes were recorded.

Results: Among 43 breast cancer patients, IHC profiles showed that 36 patients were estrogen (ER) positive, 30 patients were progesterone (PR) positive, and 12 patients were human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2) positive. The prevalence of biomarker groups in this study were as follows: luminal A, 21 patients (48.83%); luminal B, 15 (34.88%); Her 2 amplifier, 2 (4.65%); and triple negative, 5 (11.62%). Thirty-seven patients (86.04%) with malignant masses had detectable flow and six patients (13.95%) had no detectable flow. The ER-positive and PR-positive breast cancers had the highest vascular presence rate in color Doppler ultrasound but it was not statistically significant. Maximum vessel diameter in different biomarker groups and Doppler color patterns with various biomarkers showed no significant differences.

Conclusion: It is not possible to predict breast cancer biomarker groups using available color Doppler features and indexes, so pathology with IHC is still required.