Breast lesions during pregnancy and lactation: a pictorial essay

A Rare Cause of Breast Swelling in Lactating Women: Aquafilling® Gel Injection

Aquafilling® gel has been used in recent years as an alternative method to breast augmentation surgery. In this case report, we aimed to discuss radiological imaging findings and complications of Aquafilling® gel injection. Case: A 34-year-old lactating female patient presented with swelling and pain in the left breast. Ultrasonography showed massive septate fluid collections with dense content in both breasts and between the pectoral muscle fibers. On mammography, both breasts appeared dense with large mass opacities. On magnetic resonance imaging, extensive fluid-signal cystic areas were observed. Peripheral enhancement around the fluid in the left breast was present in the contrast-enhanced series. We learned from her anamnesis that Aquafilling® was applied to both breasts 5 years ago. Ultrasonography-guided sampling was performed from the cystic areas in the left breast and cytological examination revealed basophilic Aquafilling® material surrounded by diffuse inflammatory infiltrates. Breast augmentation history should be questioned in suspicious cases because Aquafilling® gel injection and its complications can present with a wide variety of symptoms and may mimic various other conditions on radiological imaging, such as cancer, abscess, granulomatous mastitis, and parasite infections.

Pregnancy-associated Breast Cancer: Why Breast Imaging During Pregnancy and Lactation Matters

Pregnancy-associated breast cancer is characterized as breast cancer diagnosed during pregnancy, within the first postpartum year, or during lactation. It usually presents as a palpable mass, although the large majority of palpable masses during pregnancy are benign. Breast cancer is the most common invasive malignancy diagnosed during pregnancy and lactation, and its incidence is increasing as more women delay childbearing. Understanding the appropriate methods for screening and diagnostic workup of breast findings in this population is imperative for radiologists to promptly diagnose pregnancy-associated breast cancer. Use of available imaging modalities should be tailored to patient-specific factors, with US typically the first-line modality due to patient age and decreased sensitivity of mammography in the setting of lactational changes. This article illustrates the spectrum of imaging appearances of pregnancy-associated breast cancer, the appropriate diagnostic imaging workup, and the unique challenges encountered in evaluation of this patient population.

Clinical characteristics and pathologic complete response (pCR) rate after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in postpartum women with breast cancer

PURPOSE

Breast cancer (BC) is currently the leading cause of death in women worldwide. Studies have confirmed that pregnancy is an independent factor affecting the survival of BC patients. BC found during pregnancy, lactation, or shortly after delivery is what we used to think of as pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC). The current expert definition of this concept is not uniform; however, there is growing evidence that postpartum breast cancer (PPBC) differs from other types of BC in terms of both biological features and prognosis, with a slightly different focus on diagnosis and treatment. With the increase of female reproductive age population and changes in fertility policies in China, patients with PPBC are receiving increasing attention. Here, we systematically analyzed the clinicopathological characteristics and chemotherapeutic response of patients with PPBC. We retrospectively analyzed the clinicopathological data, molecular subtypes, chemotherapy regimens, and pathological complete remission (pCR) rates of 1343 patients with non-metastatic BC at Harbin Medical University Cancer Hospital from January 1, 2012 to May 31, 2023. The categorical data were compared by chi-square test and Fisher exact test using logistic regression model. Predictor variables with P < 0.05 in the univariate analysis were included in the multivariate regression analysis to investigate the relationship between different age groups and pCR.

RESULTS

A total of 714 patients were eligible for analysis in this study, and 667 patients had a history of pregnancy, 40 (5.6%) of whom were PPBC patients. When diagnosed with BC, patients with PPBC were younger, more likely to undergo breast-conserving surgery (BCS), and more likely to achieve pCR (P < 0.05). In molecular typing, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2)-positive and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) were more frequent. In the entire cohort, HER-2 expression and delivery status were independent predictors of pCR rates in BC patients after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that postpartum status is an independent predictor of pCR attainment in BC patients. PPBC is more sensitive to chemotherapy than other patients.We need to pay more attention to this group and achieve individualized treatment, which will help us treat BC better and provide new targets and blueprints for our clinical therapy.

Breast Imaging and Intervention during Pregnancy and Lactation

Physiologic changes that occur in the breast during pregnancy and lactation create challenges for breast cancer screening and diagnosis. Despite these challenges, imaging evaluation should not be deferred, because delayed diagnosis of pregnancy-associated breast cancer contributes to poor outcomes. Both screening and diagnostic imaging can be safely performed using protocols based on age, breast cancer risk, and whether the patient is pregnant or lactating. US is the preferred initial imaging modality for the evaluation of clinical symptoms in pregnant women, followed by mammography if the US findings are suspicious for malignancy or do not show the cause of the clinical symptom. Breast MRI is not recommended during pregnancy because of the use of intravenous gadolinium-based contrast agents. Diagnostic imaging for lactating women is the same as that for nonpregnant nonlactating individuals, beginning with US for patients younger than 30 years old and mammography followed by US for patients aged 30 years and older. MRI can be performed for high-risk screening and local-regional staging in lactating women. The radiologist may encounter a wide variety of breast abnormalities, some specific to pregnancy and lactation, including normal physiologic changes, benign disorders, and malignant neoplasms. Although most masses encountered are benign, biopsy should be performed if the imaging characteristics are suspicious for cancer or if the finding does not resolve after a short period of clinical follow-up. Knowledge of the expected imaging appearance of physiologic changes and common benign conditions of pregnancy and lactation is critical for differentiating these findings from pregnancy-associated breast cancer. ©RSNA, 2023 Online supplemental material is available for this article. Quiz questions for this article are available through the Online Learning Center.

Approach to the growing breast lump during lactation

Physiological changes during pregnancy and lactation result in increased lumpiness of the breast. This makes the evaluation of the breast challenging. Although most self-detected lumps, during this period, tend to be benign, the priority in these patients is to exclude tumours that may require prompt management. We present a case of phyllodes tumour that occurred during lactation and discussed the resultant pitfalls that may occur during the triple assessment of a breast lump in a lactating mother.

Interventional Radiology and Pregnancy: From Conception through Delivery and Beyond

Interventional radiology (IR) plays a unique and often invaluable role in the care of pregnant patients. Special considerations regarding radiation exposure and medication choice must be taken into account when evaluating a pregnant patient for an interventional procedure. In addition, the physiologic changes that occur during pregnancy can pose special challenges for an interventionalist when treating this patient population and should be appropriately recognized. Still, the majority of standard IR procedures can be safely performed in the pregnant population, often with additional precautions and proper patient education about the risks, benefits, and alternatives. In many cases, interventional radiologists can provide lifesaving and fertility-preserving alternatives to more invasive surgical intervention. The authors summarize radiation exposure effects and guidelines and medication choice during pregnancy. The physiologic changes that occur during pregnancy are discussed, with specific interest in the pathologic consequences that can be treated with IR. The authors also describe a wide variety of minimally invasive image-guided procedures offered by IR in pregnant, peripartum, or postpartum patients. The areas where IR can help in the treatment of pregnant patients include venous access, biopsies, genitourinary and biliary interventions, venous thromboembolism treatments, ectopic pregnancy management, aneurysm intervention, and management of trauma patients. IR is also involved in management during the peripartum or postpartum periods, with roles in treatment of invasive placenta spectrum, postpartum hemorrhage after vaginal delivery, and postcesarean delivery complications. ©RSNA, 2023 Supplemental material is available for this article. Quiz questions for this article are available through the Online Learning Center.

Cancer in pregnancy: breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women, and for women under 40, it is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths. A specific type of breast cancer is pregnancy-associated breast cancer, which is diagnosed during pregnancy, the first-year postpartum, or during lactation. Pregnancy-associated breast cancer is seen in 3/1000 pregnancies and is increasing in incidence as women delay pregnancy. This type of breast cancer is more aggressive, and not infrequently, there is a delay in diagnosis attributed to physiologic changes that occur during pregnancy and a lack of awareness among physicians. In this review, we discuss the demographics of pregnancy-associated breast cancer, provide differential considerations, and illustrate the multimodality imaging features to bring attention to the radiologist about this aggressive form of breast cancer.

Volumetric imaging and morphometric analysis of breast tumor angiogenesis using a new contrast-free ultrasound technique: a feasibility study

BACKGROUND

There is a strong correlation between the morphological features of new tumor vessels and malignancy. However, angiogenic heterogeneity necessitates 3D microvascular data of tumor microvessels for more reliable quantification. To provide more accurate information regarding vessel morphological features and improve breast lesion characterization, we introduced a quantitative 3D high-definition microvasculature imaging (q3D-HDMI) as a new easily applicable and robust tool to morphologically characterize microvasculature networks in breast tumors using a contrast-free ultrasound-based imaging approach.

METHODS

In this prospective study, from January 2020 through December 2021, a newly developed q3D-HDMI technique was evaluated on participants with ultrasound-identified suspicious breast lesions recommended for core needle biopsy. The morphological features of breast tumor microvessels were extracted from the q3D-HDMI. Leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV) was applied to test the combined diagnostic performance of multiple morphological parameters of breast tumor microvessels. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the prediction performance of the generated pooled model.

RESULTS

Ninety-three participants (mean age 52 ± 17 years, 91 women) with 93 breast lesions were studied. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) generated with q3D-HDMI was 95.8% (95% CI 0.901-1.000), yielding a sensitivity of 91.7% and a specificity of 98.2%, that was significantly higher than the AUC generated with the q2D-HDMI (p = 0.02). When compared to q2D-HDMI, the tumor microvessel morphological parameters obtained from q3D-HDMI provides distinctive information that increases accuracy in differentiating breast tumors.

CONCLUSIONS

The proposed quantitative volumetric imaging technique augments conventional breast ultrasound evaluation by increasing specificity in differentiating malignant from benign breast masses.

Postpartum Galactocele in Augmented Breast after Using Breast Pump Mimicking Breast Implant-Associated Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma: A Case Report

Post-partum galactocele is a common benign disease among breastfeeding women, whereas retromammary and peri-implant galactocele are relatively rare conditions. Herein, a 34-year-old, 1 month-postpartum female, who had augmentation mammoplasty and a 1-month history of breast pump use, presented with left breast enlargement for 2 weeks. An initial left breast US revealed hyperechoic peri-implant fluid collection. Additional US-guided fine needle aspiration was done using a 21G-needle, draining the milk component in the process, and cytologic results revealed numerous crystals, suggestive of galactocele. Various diseases, especially breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma, can cause peri-implant fluid collection in an augmented breast. Thus, correlating imaging features with clinical information and cytologic analysis plays an important role in appropriate management.

Breast lactating adenoma, an example of the utility of the radiological-pathological correlation

Lactating adenomas are benign breast tumors, of which etiology, pathogenesis, and management are not yet fully evident in the literature. The primary goal of the radiological evaluation is to make the differential diagnosis with malignant conditions. We present a case of a 34-year-old pregnant woman referred to our service with a progressively increasing mass in the right breast, in whom the histopathology was consistent with a lactating adenoma.