2D shear wave elastography in evaluation of prognostic factors in breast cancer

Purpose To evaluate the reproducibility of the 2D shear wave elastography (2D-SWE) method and to identify the prognostic factors of breast lesions. Methods In this prospective study, 44 female patients were consecutively included from January 2020 to September 2021. All patients showing visible masses at B-mode ultrasound underwent to clinical evaluation, followed by qualitative and quantitative 2D-SWE by two different operators with over 15-year and 2-year experience, respectively. Subsequently, patients underwent to surgical treatment after core needle biopsy. Reproducibility of qualitative and quantitative 2D-SWE was evaluated by Cohen’s kappa and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Clinical, imaging, and histopathological data and 2D-SWE evaluations were analysed with Spearman's rank correlation test. Results The mean age of the patients was 55 years ± 12. The mean histological and ultrasound tumour size of were 23.1 mm ± 13.2 and 17.2 mm ± 10.2, respectively. The interobserver agreement showed a good reproducibility limited to the qualitative evaluation colour maps (Cohen’s kappa = 0.603) and to the quantitative evaluation E ratio (ICC = 0.771). Correlation analysis between the ultrasound and 2D-SWE values and the clinical-pathological parameters showed a significant relationship between E ratio and Elston–Ellis grading ( P < 0.030) and between tumour size and Elston–Ellis grading ( P < 0.041). Conclusion The 2D-SWE has shown good reproducibility among operators with different experience. It could be a promising tool in the evaluation of some prognostic factors in ultrasound visible breast cancer.