Changes in the tumor oxygenation but not in the tumor volume and tumor vascularization reflect early response of breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Background: Breast cancer neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) allows for assessing tumor sensitivity to systemic treatment, planning adjuvant treatment and follow-up. However, a sufficiently large number of patients fail to achieve the desired level of pathological tumor response while optimal early response assessment methods have not been established now. In our study, we simultaneously assessed the early chemotherapy-induced changes in the tumor volume by ultrasound (US), the tumor oxygenation by diffuse optical spectroscopy imaging (DOSI), and the state of the tumor vascular bed by Doppler US to elaborate the predictive criteria of breast tumor response to treatment.

Multimodal approach in assessment of the response of breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

The ability for noninvasive visualization of functional changes of a tumor's oxygenation and circulatory system offers new advantages for prognosis and monitoring of the treatment efficacy. The results of breast cancer oxygen state study under chemotherapy action obtained by diffuse optical spectroscopy (DOS) in combination with Doppler ultrasonic imaging are presented. Complex use of optical and ultrasound methods gives complementary information about the size of the tumor node, peculiarities of its vascular bed, rate of its blood flow as well as oxygenation, and provide a picture of the tumor response to treatment.