The Role of Ultrasound Elastography in Assessment of the Therapeutic Effect of Breast Cancer after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy

Background: Breast cancer (BC) is one of the most frequent cancers in women worldwide. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is used nowadays for locally advanced BC, which gives more chances to patients to undergo breast-conservative surgery. Positron emission tomography (PET), conventional ultrasound, mammography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound shear wave elastography (SWE) are used to detect the effect of the NACT. Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of ultrasound elastography in assessment of the therapeutic response and residual BC after NACT. Patients and methods: This prospective study was conducted on female patients with histologically proven BC with mean age of 46.06 ± 8.44 years. They were referred from The Surgical and Clinical Oncology Departments to the Radiology Department, Menoufia University Hospital through the period from May 2023 to May 2025. Results: ultrasound elastography revealed sensitivity of 83.3%, specificity of 75%, PPV of 83%, NPP of 75% and accuracy of 80% in follow-up of BC after NACT. When combined with the Doppler parameters, the sensitivity was 96.7%, specificity was 65%, and accuracy was 93%. Conclusion: The present study concluded that BC is one of the most common malignancies among females. NACT is currently used in the treatment of BC, aiming at the reduction of size to prepare the patient to undergo conservative surgery. SWE is considered a useful and powerful tool in the assessment of BC after NACT