Locally advanced breast carcinoma: computer assisted semiquantitative analysis of color Doppler ultrasonography in the evaluation of tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (work in progress).

We aimed to evaluate objectively the value of color Doppler flow imaging in the assessment of response of locally advanced breast cancer to primary medical treatment by using a computer assisted semiquantitative method. Prior to and after neoadjuvant treatment, 17 patients with locally advanced breast carcinoma were prospectively evaluated by physical examination and computer assisted semiquantitative color Doppler ultrasonography. The results of clinical and color Doppler examination were finally correlated to the histopathologic evaluation of tumor response. The degree of concordance between posttherapeutic histopathologic results, clinical examination, and color Doppler assessment was evaluated by kappa statistics. Concordance was 0.474 (0.135-0.813) between histopathologic results and clinical posttherapeutic assessment and 0.870 (0.627-1.113) between histopathologic results and semiquantitative color Doppler examination. Objective semiquantitative assessment of tumor vascularity as displayed by color Doppler ultrasonography has potential as a functional tool for measuring tumor response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.