Medical imaging, as we’ve spoken about before, is an important factor in the diagnosis and treatment of several medical conditions. The importance of medical imaging becomes even more prominent in the case of cancer detection, as spotting them without the help of such technology could be quite a task. Even recently, the power of PET/MRI imaging to identify several potentially useful biomarkers that point towards the presence and risk of malignancy in breast cancer patients. 

When it comes to breast cancer, early detection is pivotal in improving prognosis and survival rate. And although imaging techniques like mammography have helped decrease the mortality rate of breast cancer victims by almost 30%, the same techniques throw a few problems in the case of women with dense breast tissues. Due to such issues, better breast cancer screening modalities and identification of more imaging biomarkers would be more than welcome in breast cancer treatment. 

For this reason, the researchers, based out of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, conducted studies  to analyse the differences between 18F- FDG PET/MRI biomarkers in healthy contralateral breast tissue in patients who had malignant or benign breast tumors. 

Their study involved analysing 141 patients who had imaging abnormalities on mammography or sonography on a tumore free contralateral breast. PET/MRIs of the breast with dynamic contrast enhanced MRI, diffusion weighted imaging and the radiotracer 18F-FDG were taken for these patients. The researchers noted multiple imaging biomarkers such as background parenchymal enhancement, fibroglandular tissue, mean apparent diffusion coefficient, and breast parenchymal uptake. 

Following this, the researchers also analysed 100 malignant and 41 benign lesions. When compared to the healthy contralateral breast tissue, the researchers observed that the background parenchymal enhancement and breast parenchymal uptake were significantly reduced. The fibroglandular tissue and the mean apparent diffusion on the other hand did not show too many changes when compared to the healthy group. 

Through this study, the researchers have concluded that along with the usual biomarkers used to identify breast cancer, tracer uptake of normal breast parenchyma in 18F-FDG PET can also serve as a significant source of information in the identification and treatment of breast cancer. And with the number of hybrid PET/MRIs capable of detecting such biomarkers increasing in medical practices everywhere, there is no doubt that it will soon be used to aid in risk adapted screening and guide risk reduction strategies.