# The Role of Diffusion-Weighted Imaging in Characterizing Benign and Malignant Breast Lesions: A Retrospective Study

## TL;DR

This study shows that diffusion-weighted imaging can accurately distinguish between benign and malignant breast lesions using MRI.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates the diagnostic accuracy of ADC values in differentiating breast lesion types.

## Key findings

- Malignant breast lesions had significantly lower ADC values than benign ones.
- An ADC cutoff of 1.1 × 10^-3 mm²/s achieved 90.81% sensitivity and 91.51% specificity in lesion classification.

## Abstract

Introduction

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is a promising magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique for differentiating between benign and malignant breast lesions. This study set out to assess the diagnostic utility of DWI and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values in the characterization of breast lesions.

Materials and methods

A retrospective analysis comprised 30 patients with breast lesions who had breast MRI with DWI. The histopathological findings, ADC readings, and conventional MRI features were all analyzed. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis method was utilized to assess the diagnostic accuracy of DWI.

Results

Out of the 30 lesions, 22 (73.3%) were benign and eight (26.7%) were malignant. Malignant lesions exhibited significantly lower ADC values (p < 0.001) compared to benign lesions. An ADC cutoff value of 1.1 × 10-3 mm2/s was optimal for differentiating benign from malignant lesions, yielding 90.81% sensitivity, 91.51% specificity, and 91.5% accuracy.

Conclusion

Combining DWI with quantitative ADC analysis is a helpful, non-invasive method for the characterization of breast lesions. It shows excellent diagnostic accuracy in identifying benign and malignant lesions, which may cut down on pointless biopsies and help with patient management.