Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Breast carcinoma is the most common type of cancer in females. This study aims to compare fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose ((18)F-FDG) uptake pattern and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value for the detection of the primary tumour and axillary metastases of invasive ductal breast carcinoma. METHODS: This study included 40 breast carcinoma lesions taken from 39 patients. After staging by positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), breast surgery with axillary lymph node dissection or sentinel lymph node biopsy was performed. RESULTS: Primary lesion detection rate for PET/CT and diffusion-weighted MRI was high with 39 of 40 lesions (97.5%). The sensitivity and specificity for the detection of metastatic lymph nodes in axilla were 40.9%, 88.9%, with (18)F-FDG PET/CT scans and 40.9%, 83.3%, for dw-MRI, respectively. No significant correlation was detected between ADC and SUV(max) or SUV(max) ratios. Estrogen receptor (p=0.007) and progesterone receptor (p=0.036) positive patients had lower ADC values. Tumour SUV(max) was lower in T1 than T2 tumour size (p=0.027) and progesterone receptor-positive patients (p=0.029). Tumour/background SUV(max) was lower in progesterone receptor-positive patients (p=0.004). Tumour/liver SUV(max) was higher in grade III patients (p=0.035) and progesterone receptor negative status (p=0.043). CONCLUSIONS: This study confirmed the high detection rate of breast carcinoma in both modalities. They have same sensitivity for the detection of axillary lymph node metastases, whereas the PET/CT scan had higher specificity. Furthermore, ADC, SUV(max) and SUV(max) ratios showed some statistical significance among the patient groups according to different pathological parameters.