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Research progress of MRI-based habitat analysis in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer
WANG Xiaoshan  ZHANG Yu  ZHAO Jiayi  TANG Kunpeng  LI Feng 

Cite this article as: WANG X S, ZHANG Y, ZHAO J Y, et al. Research progress of MRI-based habitat analysis in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(10): 177-183. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.10.028.


[Abstract] Breast cancer is a malignant tumor with the highest incidence and mortality among women in the world. Its significant tumor heterogeneity poses a major challenge to clinical precision targeted therapy and long-term follow-up management. Habitat analysis is a new tumor segmentation technique based on radiomics. It achieves quantitative and visual analysis of intratumoral heterogeneity (ITH) by dividing tumors into several subregions with different functions. Compared with traditional radiomics methods, habitat analysis significantly improves the diagnostic performance of tumor prediction models and reveals the biological nature of tumors. This review systematically summarizes the current clinical research progress of MRI habitat analysis in the field of breast cancer. Firstly, we summarized the theoretical basis of spatial-temporal heterogeneity and habitat analysis of breast cancer. Subsequently, the standardized workflow of this technology and the key technologies such as automatic segmentation based on deep learning were systematically introduced, and the clinical application value of this method in predicting molecular typing, genetic characteristics, lymph node metastasis, neoadjuvant chemotherapy efficacy and prognosis of breast cancer was discussed. Finally, by analyzing the shortcomings of existing research and propose future research directions. This article aims to provide a theoretical basis for the stratified management of breast cancer patients and the formulation of individualized treatment strategies.
[Keywords] habitat analysis；radiomics；breast cancer；magnetic resonance imaging；intratumoral heterogeneity；tumor microenvironment

WANG Xiaoshan1, 2   ZHANG Yu3   ZHAO Jiayi1, 2   TANG Kunpeng4   LI Feng4*  

1 Xiangyang Central Hospital Graduate Joint Training Base of Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Xiangyang 441021, China

2 School of Medicine, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430081, China

3 Department of General Surgery, Xiangyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Xiangyang 441021, China

4 Department of Radiology and Imaging, Xiangyang Central Hospital Affiliated to Hubei University of Arts and Sciences, Xiangyang Central Hospital, Xiangyang 441021, China

Corresponding author: LI F, E-mail: xfkite@163.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2025-06-12
Accepted  2025-09-26
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.10.028
Cite this article as: WANG X S, ZHANG Y, ZHAO J Y, et al. Research progress of MRI-based habitat analysis in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2025, 16(10): 177-183. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2025.10.028.

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