Probability analysis of axillary lymph node metastasis in breast cancer patients using particle space-time distribution model

• Main Authors: Fang Chen, Jia Liu, Xinran Zhang, Hongen Liao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2019-10-01
• Series: Healthcare Technology Letters
• Subjects: tumours; probability; cancer; biomedical ultrasonics; biological organs; gynaecology; medical image processing; axillary lymph node metastasis differs; different breast cancer patients; axillary ultrasound imaging; breast tumour; axillary lymph node prediction; novel particle space-time distribution model; axillary lymphatic metastasis; dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasonography; space-time features; metastasis prediction; particle distribution information
• Online Access: https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/htl.2019.0072

The possibility of axillary lymph node metastasis differs in different breast cancer patients and is the strongest prognostic indicator in breast cancer. The existing studies mainly explored the relationship of axillary ultrasound imaging and axillary lymph node metastasis, without exploring whether ultrasound imaging of breast tumour can affect and perform axillary lymph node prediction. Therefore, this Letter proposes a novel particle space-time distribution model to find the correlation between contrast-enhanced ultrasonography of breast tumour and axillary lymphatic metastasis. Starting from the imaging principle of dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasonography, the particle space-time distribution model not only comprises space-time features of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography with an encoder–decoder network, but also the flow field information of microbubble particles is integrated into the space-time features that better serves the metastasis prediction by enhancing the particle distribution information. Extensive experiments on real patients have demonstrated that dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasonography of breast tumour can be used to predict the probability of lymphatic metastasis. This conclusion can be interpretable from the clinical and pathological perspectives.