西村 理¹, 松末 智¹, 高橋 元代², 桝井 千鶴²

Satoru NISHIMURA¹, Satoru MATSUSUE¹, Motoyo TAKAHASHI², Tizuru MASUI²

¹天理よろづ相談所病院腹部一般外科, ²天理よろづ相談所病院臨床病理部第1超音波室

¹Department of General Surgery, Tenri Hospital, ²1st Division of Ultrasonography of Department of Clinicopathology, Tenri Hospital

キーワード : Breast cancer, Ultrasonography, Boundary echo, Desmoplasia, Thermography

The invasion of breast cancer accompanies reactive changes in the surrounding stroma. These stromal changes are best known as desmoplasia; breast cancer lumps include these reactive changes. Histological studies have revealed that desmoplasia consists of the proliferation of fine collagen and myofibroblast, along with angiogenesis. Since the amount of collagen has a great influence on the ultrasonographic findings, there may be some correlation between desmoplasia and the boundary echo on the ultrasonogram (US). In this study, nineteen patients with breast cancer were studied as to the relationship between the boundary echo on US and the hot zone on thermography, which was performed to evaluate desmoplasia from the viewpoint of angiogenesis.
With the US, the boudary echo was thick in 15 patients, and not in 6. Out of the 15 patients with thick boundary echo on US, hot zone was detected on the thermogram in 12 patients, but in only one of the 6 patients with no boundary echo (x²=7.29, P