A new approach to MR imaging has been developed by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center to identify the relationship between fatty acids in breast tissue and breast cancer. The new technique, gradient-echo spectroscopic imaging, provides information on the chemical composition of breast tissue by using 3-D MR images.

The researchers, led by Melanie Freed, Ph.D., found that the presence of high saturated fatty acids in the breast may be an indicator of cancer in postmenopausal women.

“The key idea of our approach is to combine multiple gradient echo MR images with a spectroscopic analysis method," Sungheon G. Kim, Ph.D., senior author and investigator, associate professor in the department of radiology and a researcher at the Center for Advanced Imaging, Innovation and Research, told HCB News.


“This allows us to extract information about chemical compositions of individual voxels of MR images, such as different types of fatty acids in this study,” Kim added.

For the study, researchers analyzed the scans of 89 high-risk women at an average age of 48, as well as their height, weight and body mass index (BMI). Fifty eight women were premenopausal and 31 were postmenopausal.

At the end of their diagnostic exam, all the participants received a five-minute scan using the new MR technique. The results showed that 49 women had benign breast tissue, 12 had ductal carcinoma — the most common type of breast cancer — and 28 had invasive ductal carcinoma in which the cancer cells had “invaded” surrounding tissue.

Postmenopausal women with invasive ductal carcinoma had a higher percentage of saturated fatty acids and a lower percentage of monounsaturated fatty acids when compared to the benign postmenopausal women. According to the researchers, the findings suggest that high-saturated fatty acids and low monounsaturated fatty acids may be associated with invasive cancer.

The postmenopausal group that showed benign breast tissue had higher polyunsaturated fatty acids and lower saturated fatty acids than the premenopausal women.

“Our study offers the first evidence — seen in breast tissue — that high saturated fatty acids in the breast adipose tissue is associated with presence of breast cancer in postmenopausal women,” said Kim.

Previous research found that the BMI of postmenopausal women correlates with their risk of developing cancer. However, this study suggests that the composition of the fat itself may play a role.

The researchers said that more research is needed to determine how fat composition plays a role in low-risk postmenopausal women. More research is also needed to determine how these fats, which are created in the body and not correlated with diet, may influence the development of cancer.

“Measuring breast fat composition only takes an extra five minutes, making this practical, new technique something that could easily be implemented in a clinical setting,” Dr. Linda Moy, co-author of the study, said in a statement. “With further research, we could potentially use these findings to change how we look at breast cancer imaging.”

MRI Homepage