This study aimed to determine the relationship between mammographic calcifications and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tumoral enhancement before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and to assess the impact of these findings on surgical management.
This Institutional Review Board-approved, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant retrospective study involved breast cancer patients who underwent NAC between 2009 and 2015. The study cohort comprised 90 patients with pre- and posttreatment MRI and mammograms demonstrating calcifications within the tumor bed either at presentation or after treatment. The data gathered included pre- and post-NAC imaging findings and post-NAC histopathology, particularly findings associated with calcifications. Comparisons were made using Fisher's exact test, with p values lower than 0.05 considered significant.
Complete resolution of MRI enhancement occurred for 44% of the patients, and a pathologic complete response (pCR) was achieved for 32% of the patients. No statistically significant correlation between changes in mammographic calcifications and MRI enhancement was found (p = 0.12). Resolution of enhancement was strongly correlated with pCR (p < 0.0001). The majority of the patients with pCR demonstrated complete resolution of enhancement (79%, 23/29). No statistically significant relationship was found between changes in calcifications and rates of pCR (p = 0.06). A pCR was achieved most frequently for patients with resolution of enhancement and new, increasing, or unchanged calcifications (p < 0.0001).
Although calcifications seen on post-NAC mammography may be associated with benign disease, loss of MRI enhancement does not predict the absence of residual tumor with sufficient accuracy to leave calcifications in place. Complete excision of tumor bed calcifications remains standard practice and a substantial limitation to NAC use for downstaging patients to be eligible for breast conservation treatment.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 12. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 February 2026.
All research outputs
#4,142,568
of 34,492,055 outputs
Outputs from Annals of Surgical Oncology
#1,217
of 10,183 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#59,114
of 464,063 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Annals of Surgical Oncology
#7
of 83 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,492,055 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 88th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 10,183 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.7. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 464,063 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 83 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.
