Comparative Study of US Elastography and Color Doppler US in Differentiating Breast Masses in Correlation to Histopathology

Breast cancer is the most fre¬quently diagnosed cancer and the chief cause of cancer death among women worldwide, with an es¬timated 1.7 million cases.

Breast cancer alone accounts for 25% of all cancer cases and 15% of all cancer deaths among females .so, Its high incidence has led to research on new diagnostic imaging techniques for early diagnosis and to improve patient's mortality rate[1].

Application of imaging techniques together with other investigation would help clinical decision making. the most important factor in reducing mortality of certain cancers is an early diagnosis of cancer via screening based on imaging[2].

US is an accurate method for detection of breast masses ; however, US has a low accuracy in differentiating between benign from malignant breast masses . US could suggest a malignancy likelihood criteria of a breast mass, such as hypoechogenicity, irregular margins, microcalcifications, increased vascularity by Doppler and us elastography [3].

Ultrasound elastography provides a non-invasive evaluation of the "stiffness" of a lesion. Recent studies show that ultrasonographic elastogra¬phy (USE) provides higher diagnostic accuracy together with Doppler application compared with conventional B-mode ultrasonography during breast cancer diagnosis, which eventually helps to reduce false-positive results (ie, increased specificity) and therefore is useful in avoiding breast biopsy[4].