Developing a biomechanical model-based elasticity imaging method for assessing hormone receptor positive breast cancer treatment-related myocardial stiffness changes.

Purpose: Assessing cardiotoxicity as a result of breast cancer therapeutics is increasingly important as breast cancer diagnoses are trending younger and overall survival is increasing. With evidence showing that prevention of cardiotoxicity plays a significant role in increasing overall survival, there is an unmet need for accurate non-invasive methods to assess cardiac injury due to cancer therapies. Current clinical methods are too coarse and emerging research methods have not yet achieved clinical implementation. Approach: As a proof of concept, we examine myocardial elasticity imaging in the setting of premenopausal women diagnosed with hormone receptor positive (HR-positive) breast cancer undergoing severe estrogen depletion, as cardiovascular injury from early estrogen depletion is well-established. We evaluate the ability of our model-based cardiac elasticity imaging analysis method to indicate subclinical cancer therapy-related cardiac decline by examining differences in the change in cardiac elasticity over time in two cohorts of premenopausal women either undergoing severe estrogen depletion for HR-positive breast cancer or triple negative breast cancer patients as comparators. Results: Our method was capable of producing functional mechanical elasticity maps of the left ventricle (LV). Using these elasticity maps, we show significant differences in cardiac mechanical elasticity in the HR-positive breast cancer cohort compared to the comparator cohort. Conclusions: We present our methodology to assess the mechanical stiffness of the LV by interrogating cardiac magnetic resonance images within a computational biomechanical model. Our preliminary study suggests the potential of this method for examining cardiac tissue mechanical stiffness properties as an early indicator of cardiac decline.

Duke Scholars

Author Alexandra Thomas Medicine, Medical Oncology