Advancing Early Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Ki-67 Expression Prediction With Ultrasound Viscoelastography: Based on Peritumoral Assessment.
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Ultrasound The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University Guangzhou China.
- 2Department of Ultrasound The People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangxi Academy of Medical Sciences Nanning China.
- 3Department of Radiology The People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangxi Academy of Medical Sciences Nanning China.
- 4Department of Breast Surgery The People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guangxi Academy of Medical Sciences Nanning China.
Abstract
Background
Breast cancer is the most common invasive malignancy in women. Ultrasound viscoelastography may improve non-invasive diagnosis, but the clinical relevance of peritumoral viscoelastic parameters (VPs) and their correlation with Ki-67 remain unclear. This study explores these associations.Methods
A prospective study enrolled 256 breast masses (156 malignant, 100 benign). Patients underwent conventional ultrasound and viscoelastography. VPs were acquired within masses (A), peritumoral shells (Shell1: 1 mm, Shell2: 2 mm, Shell3: 3 mm), and combined regions (A' = A + Shell). Quantitative metrics included elasticity (V/1 E, V/0 E), dispersion coefficient (V/1 D), viscosity coefficient (V/0 V), and their maximum (Max), minimum (Min), mean(Mean), and standard deviation (SD) values. Diagnostic performance was evaluated by analyzing the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and calculating the area under the curve (AUC), followed by logistic regression. VPs were compared between high/low Ki-67 groups.Results
The AUCs of peritumoral VPs exceeded those from masses. V/1 D showed higher AUC than V/0 V and elasticity values, with Shell3 V/1 D SD having the highest AUC (0.840). The diagnostic efficacy of the peritumoral viscoelastic model surpassed that of the single elasticity parameter model, with 89.1% sensitivity, 73% specificity, 82.8% accuracy. Key variables included Shell3 V/1 D and Shell3 V/0 E. Shell1 V/0 V Max was significantly higher in high versus low Ki-67 expression groups (p < 0.05).Conclusion
The viscoelastic model improves diagnostic accuracy by quantifying peritumoral biomechanics, and certain VPs may predict Ki-67 expression. Peritumoral VPs show potential as novel non-invasive imaging biomarkers for early breast cancer evaluation.
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BibTeX
@article{huang2026advancing,
title = {{Advancing Early Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Ki-67 Expression Prediction With Ultrasound Viscoelastography: Based on Peritumoral Assessment.}},
author = {Xiaoli Huang and Bing Zhang and Fei Chen and Chunxiang Wei and Bei Lan and Huihui Yang and Demao Deng and Quanqing Zou},
journal = {Health science reports},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1002/hsr2.73394},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42898743},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Advancing Early Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Ki-67 Expression Prediction With Ultrasound Viscoelastography: Based on Peritumoral Assessment.
AU - Xiaoli Huang
AU - Bing Zhang
AU - Fei Chen
AU - Chunxiang Wei
AU - Bei Lan
AU - Huihui Yang
AU - Demao Deng
AU - Quanqing Zou
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/18
JO - Health science reports
DO - 10.1002/hsr2.73394
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42898743
AB - Background Breast cancer is the most common invasive malignancy in women. Ultrasound viscoelastography may improve non-invasive diagnosis, but the clinical relevance of peritumoral viscoelastic parameters (VPs) and their correlation with Ki-67 remain unclear. This study explores these associations.Methods A prospective study enrolled 256 breast masses (156 malignant, 100 benign). Patients underwent conventional ultrasound and viscoelastography. VPs were acquired within masses (A), peritumoral shells (Shell1: 1 mm, Shell2: 2 mm, Shell3: 3 mm), and combined regions (A' = A + Shell). Quantitative metrics included elasticity (V/1 E, V/0 E), dispersion coefficient (V/1 D), viscosity coefficient (V/0 V), and their maximum (Max), minimum (Min), mean(Mean), and standard deviation (SD) values. Diagnostic performance was evaluated by analyzing the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and calculating the area under the curve (AUC), followed by logistic regression. VPs were compared between high/low Ki-67 groups.Results The AUCs of peritumoral VPs exceeded those from masses. V/1 D showed higher AUC than V/0 V and elasticity values, with Shell3 V/1 D SD having the highest AUC (0.840). The diagnostic efficacy of the peritumoral viscoelastic model surpassed that of the single elasticity parameter model, with 89.1% sensitivity, 73% specificity, 82.8% accuracy. Key variables included Shell3 V/1 D and Shell3 V/0 E. Shell1 V/0 V Max was significantly higher in high versus low Ki-67 expression groups (p < 0.05).Conclusion The viscoelastic model improves diagnostic accuracy by quantifying peritumoral biomechanics, and certain VPs may predict Ki-67 expression. Peritumoral VPs show potential as novel non-invasive imaging biomarkers for early breast cancer evaluation.
SN - 2398-8835
ER -