Correlation between histopathological grading and shear-wave elastography in evaluating invasive carcinoma of no special type

The present study aimed to investigate the correlation between histologic grade and shear-wave elastography in evaluating invasive breast carcinoma of no special type (NST). A total of 84 breast lesions in 80 patients (age range, 32-64 years) were retrospectively evaluated. The patients underwent B-mode ultrasound and virtual touch tissue quantification diagnosis. A semi-quantitative method was then applied in order to determine the histologic grade of the invasive carcinoma of NST according to the grading system published by the World Health Organization. Among the 84 breast lesions, 14 (16.7%) were classified as Grade I, while 29 (34.5%) and 41 (48.8%) were determined to be of Grade II and Grade III, respectively. The size of the breast lesions increased with the increase in histological grade (P<0.001). In addition, 29.3% of the Grade-III breast lesions exhibited acoustic enhancement, while the majority of the Grade-I breast lesions (78.6%) exhibited acoustic shadowing (P=0.002). Furthermore, a higher histopathological grade was closely correlated with a higher mean, minimum and maximum shear-wave velocity value (P<0.05). In conclusion, regarding the evaluation of invasive breast carcinoma of NST, the histologic grade was strongly correlated with tissue stiffness; a higher histologic grade was associated with a harder lesion. Therefore, shear-wave elastography may provide important clinical reference values.