Diffusion-Weighted Imaging (DWI) for Breast Cancers; Challenging to Diagnose Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS) and Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC)

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) visualizes the thermal motion of protons in tissue, which is less affected by the state of the background mammary gland and therefore has sufficient capability to diagnose DCIS as well as ILC. Of 30 patients with DCIS, sensitivity was 87%, and 4 cases were false negative (FN); of 30 patients with invasive lobular carcinoma ILC, the rate of true positive cases (TP) was 93%, and 2 cases were FN. With an ability to provide steady, high-contrast resolution tissue images, DWI is expected to play a significant role in future breast cancer diagnosis. We should promote the application of DWI in clinical practice, taking advantage of its high-contrast resolution.