Purpose: The purpose of this study were to investigate the feasibility of using three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound to monitor tumor vascular changes and assessing tumor pathological response during chemotherapy.
Materials and Methods: Six female patients with proven breast cancer by core needle biopsy. Three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound examinations were performed before treatment and surgery.
Imaging analysis was performed using the Virtual Organ Computer-aided
Analysis (VOCAL) imaging program (GE Medical Systems) which can calculate three indices (vascularization index, flow index and vascularization flow index) for the tumor automatically.
Result: Morphological changes are correlated with the three indices vascularization index, flow index and vascularization flow index for the tumor automatically.
Conclusion: Our initial findings indicate that three-dimensional power Doppler ultrasound can be used during chemotherapy to repeatedly monitor tumor vascular change. Morphological changes are correlated with the vascularization index, flow index and vascularization flow index in the tumor vascularity.