Evaluation of Patients With Breast Cancer Using DCE-MRI, MRS, and Proteomics

OBJECTIVES:

• To correlate data obtained by DCE-MRI and MRS in healthy women and in women who are undergoing surgery for breast cancer with data obtained by conventional X-ray mammography, tissue proteomics, and histopathology.
• To evaluate the impact of MRSI data on treatment planning for radiotherapy and/or surgery.

OUTLINE: Healthy participants undergo dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI and magnetic resonance spectroscopic (MRS) for longitudinal studies of breast imaging and spectroscopy.

Patients with breast cancers undergo DCE-MRI and MRS prior to initiation of treatment (i.e., surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy). After treatment has begun, patients then undergo repeat imaging (not more than 1 per month) for follow-up assessments and longitudinal studies.

Breast tissue samples are collected from patients undergoing surgery. Samples are evaluated by histopathological and proteomic analysis for correlation with DCE-MRI and MRS findings.

The study interventions are discontinued after definitive surgery is performed.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 10 healthy participants and 40 patients with breast cancer will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Meets 1 of the following criteria:

• Women with breast tumors planning to undergo surgical resection
• Healthy volunteers, including any constitutionally healthy female with no history of breast cancer
• Hormone receptor status not specified

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Female
• Menopausal status not specified
• Not pregnant or nursing
• Negative pregnancy test
• Fertile patients must use effective contraception
• Not acutely ill
• No non-magnetic resonance-compatible ferromagnetic materials present in the body

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• Prior chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy allowed