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Associated Findings on MRI

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0:01

So we're going to go on to a case of a

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63 year old woman who had a recent diagnosis of

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right breast cancer and metastatic disease

0:09

in her right axillary lymph node, and our MRI

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was performed to evaluate extent of disease.

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So here's our T1-weighted image.

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On this patient, T1-weighted.

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Just going through this from

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top to bottom, you can see there's

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a lot going on on that right side.

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She has a very large mass, and we're going to

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look at the contrast-enhanced study as well.

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She also has large lymph nodes.

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It's a little bit hard to get all of the

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information from this T1 non-fat-saturated

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image, but you can see skin thickening.

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There's a lot, a lot going on here.

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So I'm going to move to the post-contrast sub.

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So...

1:02

One of the reasons to do this MRI is just

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to see what's happening with this right

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breast and also to screen the left breast.

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So, in the right breast, we have

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a large, diffusely enhancing mass.

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It has some central areas that don't

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enhance very much, probably because

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they're necrotic, but that's a very

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large mass involving the majority of the

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central and upper part of the breast.

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We can see that in certain portions,

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the mass extends directly into the

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skin, and the skin is also enhancing.

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So, that whole thing...

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Front part of the skin, the anterior

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and lateral skin is enhancing.

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And we can also see

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in the axilla, there are

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some very large lymph nodes.

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One of those had been biopsied and

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found to have metastatic disease,

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which is not surprising, but

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very large confluent lymph nodes.

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There's more lymph nodes,

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you know, even the lower

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axillary lymph node is involved.

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The other thing that we're

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looking at is pectoralis

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muscle involvement.

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And you can see that the pectoralis

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muscle is diffusely enlarged,

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it has large masses within it.

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Part of this looks like it's direct

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extension from this mass in the breast,

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but there are several masses involving

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the pectoralis muscle and enlarging

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it. We'll see those as we scroll through.

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So, pectoralis muscle involvement.

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The other thing that we look at in

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a large mass like this is what's

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happening with the internal mammary

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lymph nodes.

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And on the normal side, we see an

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internal mammary artery and vein.

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And on the affected side, we actually see

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some large masses that are in that same area

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with the internal mammary artery and vein.

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So this is a large lymph node there.

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And as we scroll through, she has another

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one down lower, but internal mammary artery

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and vein and internal mammary adenopathy.

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We always want to check in a patient

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like this who has a very large cancer,

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we've checked skin involvement, which is

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present pectoralis involvement present.

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Axillary nodes internal mammary nodes.

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And then we're also wondering if this

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patient has more distant metastatic disease.

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And one of the things that we noticed was that

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she did seem to have some pleural enhancing

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pleural nodularity here anteriorly, and we were

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concerned about metastatic disease to the lungs.

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I think on some of the sequences there,

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there were actually some lesions that were

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visible in the lung and in the liver.

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And then one more thing to look at were any

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bony lesions. If there's anything visible in

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the sternum, which is here centrally, or ribs.

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And we did have this lesion.

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So this is a rib with a metastatic lesion.

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There's a fracture that's a pathologic fracture,

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and there's enhancement around the rib.

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So we've got a rib lesion.

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You can see the fracture there.

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And we're also, you know, we're checking the

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other side, but that's not a primary concern

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in this patient who has such extensive disease.

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But on the left breast, we do

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see some foci of enhancement.

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There's actually some linear non-

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mass enhancement in the lower breast.

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Right here.

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You know, we might be concerned about

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that if there weren't so many other

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areas of interest here and also

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interesting in this patient.

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This is the stir image,

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and it shows us some of

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these masses in the lung

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and then in the liver.

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There were several masses.

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First noticed on STIR images, but then when

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we went, we went to the post-contrast images,

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these actually were filling in with contrast.

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So they were enhancing masses, and on

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subsequent imaging with PET CT, these

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were suspicious for metastatic lesions.

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So this patient has a lot of the

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associated findings that we're

6:38

looking for, kind of all in one patient.

Report

Description

Faculty

Lisa Ann Mullen, MD

Assistant Professor; Breast Imaging Fellowship Director

Johns Hopkins Medicine

Tags

Women's Health

Neoplastic

MRI

Breast

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