Clinical Research Directory

Breast Masses MRI Volumetry Compared to Post-operative Pathological Volume

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies afflicting women worldwide 1. Tumor size is important prognostic factor, its accurate measurement is essential for formulating surgery and chemotherapy plans. Additionally monitoring the change of tumor volume during treatment is an important for response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST) 1. Typically, breast tumor size is reported from diameter measurements, using the unidimensional response evaluation criteria in solid tumors (RECIST) or the bidimensional WHO criteria. Both caliper techniques are widely employed methods for their simplicity 2. However, may be less sensitive than 3D volumetric measurement 3. Breast cancers are less well circumscribed and more inhomogeneous on their border than benign lesions 2 and tumor necrosis correlated with tumor grade and aggressiveness is technically challenging while measuring tumor 1. Measurements of tumor volume is more accurate than diameter and thus more sensitive to tumor size changes in response to treatment. 3D volume measurements more accurately capture the extent of irregularly shaped tumors, multifocality, and diffuse shrinkage of lesions during treatment 3. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is high resolution, inherent three-dimensionality and able to quantify tumor size 4,5. It is superior to mammography, sonography, and examination for revealing tumor extent in the breast and more accurately reflect the presence and size of residual disease after chemotherapy 3. Previous studies investigated tumor size measured by the longest diameter on MRI agree with those on pathology 3. Also 3D tumor volume correlation with those of other pathology has been investigated for was investigated in breast, prostate and pleural cancers 6-8 Our aim is to investigate CE-MRI tumor volume compared to pathology size.

Photoacoustic/Ultrasound Imaging for Breast Nodule Diagnosis, Molecular Classification, and Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Response Evaluation

Photoacoustic (PA) imaging (PAI) emergerd as a rapidly evolving biomedical imaging modality, which combines the merits of optical imaging and ultrasound (US) imaging, and has a capacity in morphological, functional and molecular imaging, showing potential in visualizing superficial organs. The goal of this clinical trial is to build a PAI standardized scoring system to identify benign and malignant tumors, and use PAI to further determine the molecular classification of malignant breast tumors, and monitor the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. How to build a standardized PA/US scoring system in differential diagnosis of benign and malignant tumors? 2. Can PAI precisely determine the molecular classification of breast tumors? 3. Can PAI systems predict the efficacy of NAC in breast cancer? Participants will receive regular PA/US imaging examinations during four stages of NAC (before NAC, 2 Cycles, 4 Cycles and 6 Cycles). And the effectiveness of PA/US in predicting NAC for breast cancer at different time points will be evaluated.

Three-Dimensional Ultrasound Imaging and Spectroscopy for Characterizing Breast Masses

The purpose of the study is to test the hypothesis that quantitative ultrasound techniques including spectroscopy may be used as a non-invasive biomarker for characterization of suspected breast cancers. The main goal is to select and identify an optimal set of quantitative ultrasound parameters that can be used, non-invasively, to characterize suspected breast cancers, as identified based on the histopathology reports on core biopsy specimens, surgery reports, or radiology reports. Primary endpoint will correlate quantitative ultrasound parameters to the histopathological properties, as determined from pathology reports on core biopsy specimens, surgery reports, or radiology reports. The secondary endpoint in this study will include correlating the results of ultrasound-based breast cancer characterization with 2 and 5-years clinical outcomes.