Ductal carcinoma in situ: magnetic resonance and ultrasound imaging in mouse models of breast cancer

The earliest stage of breast cancer, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), is a remarkably heterogeneous disease with diverse molecular and prognostic subtypes. Mouse models of breast cancer offer an effective experimental framework in which to investigate DCIS, and biomedical imaging can provide potential insights into the biology of these models. In this study, we develop a high resolution, multi-modality strategy for imaging preinvasive mammary neoplasias in two mouse models of DCIS. We performed high resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on a 3Tesla clinical scanner, using noncontrast T1 and T2 weighted acquisitions and dynamic contrast enhanced MRI. Preinvasive lesions were readily identified on noncontrast T1 and T2 weighted acquisitions. Subsequently, MRI-directed ultrasound was performed and an agar grid was used to correlate MRI with ultrasound and histology. We found that both MRI and ultrasound were able to detect preinvasive neoplasias with high sensitivity (over 90% in the posterior inguinal mammary glands). This study has established an imaging strategy for monitoring mouse models of DCIS, with rapid imaging acquisitions in two different modalities. We have also introduced a new method for correlating MRI with ultrasound and histology. This work sets the