• Hyejin Cheon, Hye Jung Kim, So Mi Lee, Seung Hyun Cho, Kyung Min Shin, Gab Chul Kim, Ji Young Park, and Won Hwa Kim.
• Department of Radiology, Kyungpook National University Medical Center, Daegu, Korea.
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2017 Oct 1; 46 (4): 1037-1044.

PurposeIn node-negative disease, the presence of lymphovascular invasion (LVI) is reported to be an unfavorable prognostic factor. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate whether preoperative breast MRI features are associated with LVI in patients with node-negative invasive breast cancer by a propensity-matched analysis.Materials And MethodsAmong 389 patients with node-negative invasive ductal breast cancer who had preoperative breast 3.0 Tesla MRI with precontrast T2-weighted fat-suppressed, pre- and dynamic postcontrast T1-weighted fat-suppressed sequences, 61 patients with LVI (LVI group) were matched with 183 patients without LVI (no LVI group) at a ratio of 1:3 in terms of age, histologic grade, tumor size, and hormone receptor status. Two radiologists reviewed the MRI features, following profiles of focal breast edema (peritumoral, prepectoral, subcutaneous), intratumoral T2 signal intensity, adjacent vessel sign, and increased ipsilateral whole-breast vascularity, in addition to 2013 Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System lexicon.ResultsThe presence of peritumoral edema (45.9% [28/61] versus 30.6% [56/183], P = 0.030) and adjacent vessel sign (82.0% [50/61] versus 68.3% [125/183], P = 0.041) was significantly associated with LVI. Prepectoral edema was also more frequently observed in the LVI group than in the no LVI group with borderline significance (26.2% [16/61] versus 15.3% [28/183], P = 0.055). In cases of nonmass enhancement, regional enhancement was more frequently found in the LVI group than in the no LVI group (60.0% [3/4] versus 5.9% [1/4], P = 0.042).ConclusionPreoperative breast MRI features may be associated with LVI in patients with node-negative invasive breast cancer.Level Of Evidence3 Technical Efficacy: Stage 3 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2017;46:1037-1044.© 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

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