Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Apr 16, 2022; 10(11): 3436-3448
Published online Apr 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i11.3436
Accuracy of ultrasound elastography for predicting breast cancer response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Wei Chen, Li-Xiang Fang, Hai-Lan Chen, Jian-Hua Zheng
Wei Chen, Li-Xiang Fang, Hai-Lan Chen, Jian-Hua Zheng, Department of Ultrasound, The Affiliated Hospital of Putian University, Putian 351100, Fujian Province, China
Author contributions: Chen W and Zheng JH conceived and designed the study; Fang LX, Chen HL, and Zheng JH were involved in literature search and data collection; Chen W analyzed the data and wrote the paper; Zheng JH reviewed and edited the manuscript; all authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors deny any conflict of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 checklist and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jian-Hua Zheng, MD, Doctor, Department of Ultrasound, The Affiliated Hospital of Putian University, No. 999 Dongzhen East Road, Putian 351100, Fujian Province, China. zhengjh0328@sina.com
Received: September 12, 2021
Peer-review started: September 12, 2021
First decision: October 25, 2021
Revised: November 9, 2021
Accepted: January 13, 2022
Article in press: January 13, 2022
Published online: April 16, 2022
Processing time: 208 Days and 3.8 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Several studies have reported the prognostic value of ultrasound elastography (UE) in patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) for breast cancer. However, the assessment of parameters is different for shear-wave elastography and strain elastography in terms of measured elasticity parameter and mode of imaging.

Research motivation

To the best of our knowledge, no meta-analysis has been conducted to assess the accuracy of the two modes of elastography in predicting the response to NACT.

Research objectives

The aim of the current study was to systematically search the literature for all studies assessing the accuracy of UE for predicting response to NACT in breast cancer, and pool the data for meta-analysis.

Research methods

A comprehensive and systematic search was performed in the databases of MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCOPUS, PubMed Central, CINAHL, Web of Science, and Cochrane library from inception until December 2020.

Research results

We found that UE had an equal pooled sensitivity and specificity of 86% for predicting the pathologic complete response (pCR) in breast cancer patients following NACT. We also found that strain wave elastography was the better technique with a pooled sensitivity of 93% and specificity of 87% compared to shear wave elastography (77% and 84%). This means that strain elastography can help in effectively ruling out the patients correctly as it had a sensitivity more than 90%.

Research conclusions

Strain-wave type of UE can accurately predict the pCR following NACT amongst breast cancer patients.

Research perspectives

Additional large-scale setting-specific longitudinal studies are merited to establish the best imaging methods to assess all the patients administered with NACT.