A Model Combining Conventional Ultrasound Characteristics, Strain Elastography and Clinicopathological Features to Predict Ki-67 Expression in Small Breast Cancer

To establish a predictive model incorporating conventional ultrasound, strain elastography and clinicopathological features for Ki-67 expression in small breast cancer (SBC) which defined as maximum diameter less than2 cm. In this retrospective study, 165 SBC patients from our hospital were allocated to a high Ki-67 group ( n = 104) and a low Ki-67 group ( n = 61). Multivariate regression analysis was performed to identify independent indicators for developing predictive models. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC) curve was also determined to establish the diagnostic performance of different predictive models. The corresponding sensitivities and specificities of different models at the cutoff value were compared. Conventional ultrasound parameters (spiculated margin, absence of posterior shadowing and Adler grade 2–3), strain elastic scores and clinicopathological information (HER2 positive) were significantly correlated with high expression of Ki-67 in SBC (all p < .05). Model 2, which incorporated conventional ultrasound features and strain elastic scores, yielded good diagnostic performance (AUC = 0.774) with better sensitivity than model 1, which only incorporated ultrasound characteristics (78.85%vs. 55.77%, p = .000), with specificities of 77.05% and 62.30% ( p = .035), respectively. Model 3, which incorporated conventional ultrasound, strain elastography and clinicopathological features, yielded better performance (AUC = 0.853) than model 1 (AUC = 0.694) and model 2 (AUC = 0.774), and the specificity was higher than model 1 (86.89% vs. 77.05%, p = .001). The predictive model combining conventional ultrasound, strain elastic scores and clinicopathological features could improve the predictive performance of Ki-67 expression in SBC.