Multimodality Imaging for Evaluating Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer

• Published in: American journal of roentgenology (1976) Vol. 208; no. 2; pp. 290 - 299
• Main Authors: Rauch, Gaiane M, Adrada, Beatriz Elena, Kuerer, Henry Mark, van la Parra, Raquel F D, Leung, Jessica W T, Yang, Wei Tse
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-02-2017
• Subjects: Antineoplastic Agents - administration & dosage; Breast Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Breast Neoplasms - drug therapy; Chemotherapy, Adjuvant - methods; Drug Monitoring - methods; Female; Humans; Mammography - methods; Multimodal Imaging - methods; Neoadjuvant Therapy - methods; Outcome Assessment, Health Care - methods; breast MRI; neoadjuvant chemotherapy; breast cancer; molecular breast imaging; breast PET
• ISSN: 0361-803X; 1546-3141
• DOI: 10.2214/ajr.16.17223

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy is becoming the standard of care for patients with locally advanced breast cancer. Conventional imaging modalities used for the assessment of tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy rely on changes in size or morphologic characteristics and, therefore, are inherently limited.
Functional imaging technologies evaluate vascular, metabolic, biochemical, and molecular changes in cancer cells and have a unique ability to detect specific biologic tumor markers, assess therapeutic targets, predict early response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and guide individualized cancer therapy.