Mean age of patients at diagnosis was 56.0 years (range:36-85 years,
Standard Deviation: 13.0 years)
Mean size of target lesion was 21.0 mm (range: 4-80 mm,
SD: 14.0 mm).
78 patients had invasive ductal carcinoma,
16 patients had invasive lobular carcinoma,
2 patients had medullary carcinomas,
2 patient had mucinous carcinomas,
and 2 patients had tubular carcinomas.
24 patients were G1,
46 patients were G2 and 30 were G3.
57/100 patients were node negatives and 43/100 were node positives.
In all cases ER/PR receptor status,
HER2 status,
and Ki67 was available.
9 patients had a triple negative breast cancer.
Hystopathological characteristics of breast cancers were analyzed and compared with ultrasound features.
Tumor characteristics stratified by tumor grading were presented in Table 1.
The presence of spiculated margin,
echogenic halo and posterior shadowing is significantly associated (p<0.001) with low-grade tumor (G1 and G2) (Fig.
3,4).
G1 tumors were highly associated with ER/PgR receptor expression and negative lymph node status.
The presence of microlobulated/angular margin,
inhomogeneous/middle hypoechoic echo pattern,
absence of echogenic halo and absence of posterior acoustic shadowing is highly associated with high-grade tumor (G3) (Fig.
5).
G3 tumors are also associated with ER receptor negativity.
Based on the age we have divided the patients into two groups: patients aged < 50 years and patients aged ≥50 years.
The only statistically significant difference concerned the hormone status,
more often negative in the young group.
Based on the dimension we have divided the patients into two groups: patients with target lesion <2 cm and patients with target lesion ≥2 cm.
Patients with breast lesions lower than 2 cm often have low grade tumor and negative lymph node status.
In our series we had 9 cases of triple-negative tumors.
All these cases showed high tumor grade,
non spiculated margins,
inhomogenous echo pattern and abrupt interface.
Most of the cases showed posterior enhancement (Fig.
6).