Prediction of axillary response by monitoring with ultrasound and MRI during and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients

To investigate whether monitoring with ultrasound and MR imaging before, during and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) can predict axillary response in breast cancer patients. A total of 131 breast cancer patients with clinically positive axillary lymph node (LN) who underwent NAC and subsequent surgery were enrolled. They had ultrasound and 3.0 T-MR examinations before, during and after NAC. After reviewing ultrasound and MR images, axillary LN features and tumour size (T size) were noted. According to LN status after surgery, imaging features and their diagnostic performances were analysed. Of the 131 patients, 60 (45.8%) had positive LNs after surgery. Pre-NAC T size at ultrasound and MR was different in positive LN status after surgery (p