Triple-negative breast cancer: Pretreatment magnetic resonance imaging features and clinicopathological factors associated with recurrence

Purpose: We aimed to investigate the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features and clinicopathologic factors with recurrence of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Patients and methods: We identified 281 patients with 288 surgically confirmed TNBC lesions who underwent pretreatment MRI between 2009 and 2015. The presence of intratumoral high signal on T2-weighted images, high-signal rim on diffusion-weighted images (DWI), and rim enhancement on the dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and clinicopathological data were collected. Cox proportional analysis was performed. Results: Of the 288 lesions, 36 (12.5%) recurred after a median follow-up of 18 months (range, 3.6–68.3 months). Rim enhancement (hazard ratio [HR] = 3.15; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.01, 9.88; p = .048), and lymphovascular invasion (HR = 2.73, 95% CI = 1.20, 6.23; p = .016) were independently associated with disease recurrence. While fibroglandular volume, background parenchymal enhancement, intratumoral T2 high signal, and high-signal rim on DWI, were not found to be risk factors for recurrence. Conclusion: Pretreatment MRI features may help predict a high risk of recurrence in patients with TNBC.