Response of bilateral breasts to the endogenous hormonal fluctuation in a menstrual cycle evaluated using 3D MRI

The normal breast tissue responds to the fluctuation of endogenous hormones during a menstrual cycle (MC) and shows changes in breast density. The changes between left and right breasts of the same women were compared to evaluate the symmetrical response. Twenty-four healthy women were recruited in this study. Four weekly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies were performed during one MC. A computer algorithm was used to segment the breast and the fibroglandular tissue to measure the fibroglandular tissue volume (FV) and three morphological parameters: circularity, convexity and irregularity. The coefficient of variation (CV) for each parameter measured among four MRI studies was calculated; also, the maximal percent change between two MRI studies that show the highest and the lowest FV was calculated. These parameters measured from left and right breasts were compared using Pearson correlation.For the FV, the CV measured between left and right breasts of 24 subjects was highly correlated, with r = 0.91; the maximal percent difference was also highly correlated, with r = 0.93. Overall, the mean left-to-right difference in the measured FV was small: 1.2% ± 1.1% for CV and 2.6% ± 2.3% for the maximal percent difference. For the three morphological parameters, the mean left-to-right percentage difference was similar to the differences seen in FV; however, these morphological parameters do not reveal a high functional symmetry between left and right breasts. The results showed that the measured FV from left and right breasts of the same woman revealed a high functional symmetry. Since endogenous hormone plays an important role in the development of breast cancer, it would be interesting to investigate whether the functional asymmetry of response in some patients is associated with the risk of developing unilateral breast cancer.