Color Doppler ultrasound in breast carcinomas: Relationship with hormone receptors, DNA ploidy, S-phase fraction, and histopathology

Data on 368 patients with breast carcinomas measuring less than or equal to 5 cm were analyzed to study the relationship between the prognostic factors and the how indices measured by color Doppler ultrasound (US), Vascularity was detected by color Doppler US in 348 (94.6%) of the 368 breast tumors. Tumors without vascularity were significantly (p = 0.0001) smaller than the tumors with vascularity. There was a correlation between V-max and tumor size, Postmenopausal women had greater values of RI, PI, and V-max, Tumors larger than 2 cm had significantly greater RI, V-max and number of vessels as compared with the tumors smaller than 2 cm, RI was significantly greater in the nondiploid tumors than in the diploid tumors. RI greater than or equal to 0.7 was significantly associated with nondiploid carcinomas and SPF greater than or equal to 7%. Tumor size and V,,, significantly predicted axillary lymph node metastases. (C) 2001 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology.