Characterization of Breast Lesions

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) provides image contrast through measurement of the diffusion properties of water within tissues. In cancer imaging DW-MRI has been used to distinguish brain tumours from peritumoural oedema. It is also increasingly exploited to differentiate benign and malignant lesions in liver, breast and prostate where increased cellularity of malignant lesions restricts water motion in a reduced extracellular space. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for the detection and characterization of breast lesions compared with dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, dynamic curve,ultrasound, mammography and biopsy.