Clinical Application of Shear Wave Elastography in Patients with Breast Cancer

Abstract

Elastography is an imaging modality for assessing tissue differences regarding stiffness or elasticity for what was historically assessed manually by clinical palpation. Shear wave elastography (SWE) is a recently developed ultrasound technique that can visualize and measure tissue elasticity. Combined with conventional B-mode ultrasonography, SWE can potentially evaluate the elasticity of a breast lesion and help to distinguish malignant breast tumors from benign ones. SWE provides high quality images for diagnosing breast cancer, which even-tually helps reduce false-positive results and avoids unnecessary biopsies. More recently, SWE been proven useful for the diagnosis of breast cancer, and has been shown to provide valuable information that can be used as a predictor of the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy or prognosis. This article reviews the clinical application and current role of SWE in patients with breast cancer.