Does color Doppler ultrasound vascularity predict the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer?

OBJECTIVES To assess the proportions of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy of breast cancer according to color Doppler ultrasound vascularity patterns. MATERIAL AND METHOD Prospective evaluation using gray scale and color Doppler ultrasound for number of vessels and feeding appearances of tumors as well as the changes in tumor sizes at before and after chemotherapy in 69 breast cancer patients. RESULTS The overall response rate in 70 breast cancers was 20%. Twenty-nine lesions (41%) showed hypervascularity and 41 lesions (59%) revealed hypovascularity. There were 5 vascularity patterns and each pattern had the proportion of responders as follows; 33.3% for hypovascularity with single-vessel feeding into the tumor, 25% for hypovascularity with single-vessel feeding at periphery of the tumor, 25% for no vascular feeding to the tumor, 16.7% for hypervascularity with vascular feeding at the periphery of the tumor and 13% for hypervascularity with vascular feeding into the tumor. The highest percentage of responsive group was the pattern of hypovascularity with single-vessel feeding into the tumor (33.3%). CONCLUSION There is a trend that tumor vascularity and patterns of vascular feeding by color Doppler ultrasound can predict the responsiveness of breast cancer to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.