Using ~1H Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy To Monitor Liver Fat Changes Due To Chemotherapy In Breast Bancer Patients

Objective To explore the feasibility that monitor liver fat content changes by proton maganetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) and variation of liver fat content in patients with cancer of mammary gland through measuring liver fat content of 30 patients who needs postoperative with cancer of mammary gland by 1H-MRS.Methods and materials Thirty patients with breast cancer who were receiving postoperative chemotherapy were included. 1H-MRS was acquired before chemotherapy, after three cycle treatment, and after six cycle treatment. All scans were performed on GE 1.5T MRI system using point-resolved-spectroscopy sequence, and breathing gating were employed. Fat content was calculated by measuring the areas of water and lipid peaks using jMRUI software package. And observed the correlation between the change of liver fat content and the chemotherapy treatment. The liver function was tested within the corresponding period , including alanine amino transferase (ALT) ,aspartate aminotransferase (AST) .Results Hepatic fat content increased in 26 patients (26/30) after treatement. 21 of these patients had lipid peak before treatment and the value increased from 5.59%±4.86% to 8.79%±6.02% after three cycles, and reached 15.81%±10.73% after finished six cycle of treatment. The other 5 patiens who had no lipid peak before chemotherapy showed lipid peak during treatment. The rest 4 cases (4/30) with no hepatic fat content at baseline did not show lipid peak during the whole chemotherapy course.The alanine amino transferase and aspartate aminotransferase of all 30 patients were in the normal range before chemotherapy, and has different rate increases along with the course of progress. 2 patients were more than the normal range after three treatment cycles,and another 4 appear after six treatment cycles.Conclusions Hepatic fat content increased during chemotherapy in breast cancer patient. 1H-MRS provides a noninvasive tool to monitor hepatic fat content change and detect chemotherapy related liver toxicity.