New ultrasound imaging techniques developed at the University of Dundee could help transform breast cancer treatment, a recent study suggests.

Led by researchers at the University of Dundee’s School of Medicine, the study found that a combination of shear wave elastography (SWE) and standard ultrasound (US) could improve how practitioners measure certain cancers’ response to chemotherapy treatment.

By adding SWE to standard ultrasound, researchers said that breast cancer imaging methods could be improved as it can measure the ‘stiffness’ of tissue – which helps differentiate scar tissue leftover from residual breast tumours.

Additionally, researchers found, the new techniques could help reduce the extent of surgery for patients. Long-term, it is hoped that SWA with ultrasound will be a cheaper and more accessible method for the NHS compared to MRI scans.

Results through this method are also faster, taking less than five minutes. Conversely, an MRI can take between 30 to 45 minutes, researchers said.

In the study, 80 breast cancer patients who were due to receive neo-adjuvant chemotherapy (before surgery) underwent standard ultrasound, MRI and SWI combined with ultrasound scans both before and after treatment.

Researchers tested if breast cancer cells still remained present come surgery, and whether they were detected by ultrasound alone, MRI or the combined method.

Out of 80 participants, 21 showed no signs of a tumour remaining when assessed at surgery. This, the researchers explained, shows that the combination of SWE and ultrasound was just as accurate as an MRI scan in identifying is chemotherapy had cleared signs of a tumour in a patient’s breast.

Professor Andrew Evans, professor of breast imaging at the University, said the study uncovered important findings and that the combined method could potentially replace MRI in the future.

“Our study is the first time that a comparison of this nature has been undertaken and we found that shear wave elastography combined with ultrasound had a similar accuracy to MRI,” Evans said. “It’s quick and reproducible, so it could potentially replace MRI in the future, which is expensive, time-consuming and cannot be given to some women.

“This is an important finding that could have a real impact on patients’ treatment in the future, and we now need to see larger studies to verify our findings,” he added.

The study, published in the Clinical Radiology journal, also suggested that the new imaging method will provide a solution for people who are unable to undergo an MRI scan, which is around 10% of breast cancer patients.