3D Ultrasound for the Imaging of Lymph Nodes in Patients With Breast Cancer

June 12, 2026 updated by: Mayo Clinic

3D Ultrasound Imaging of the Axillary Lymph Nodes

This early phase I studies how well a new 3D ultrasound (3D-US) imaging technology works in evaluating lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer. Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to generate images of the body.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:

I. Conducting a pilot study to optimize the in vivo performance of the newly developed three-dimensional (3D)-ultrasound (US) technology.

II. Evaluate the performance of the new 3D-US technique in differentiating benign from malignant lymph nodes in patients.

III. Compare the performance of the new 3D-US method with conventional two-dimensional (2D)-US for localizing the clipped lymph nodes.

OUTLINE:

Patients undergo 3D-US on study. Patients who have a lymph node clip placed and undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy undergo imaging of the clipped node before surgery.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

55

Phase

  • Early Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Minnesota
      • Rochester, Minnesota, United States, 55905

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with lymph node biopsy or lymph node clip placement as per routine clinical care.
  • Age of 18 or older.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Vulnerable subjects such as prisoners and adults lacking capacity to consent.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Diagnostic
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Diagnostic (3D-US)
Patients undergo 3D-US on study. Patients who have a lymph node clip placed and undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy undergo imaging of the clipped node before surgery.
Device: Ultrasound Imaging
Undergo 3D-US
Other Names:
  • Ultrasound
  • 2-Dimensional Grayscale Ultrasound Imaging
  • 2-Dimensional Ultrasound Imaging
  • 2D-US
  • Ultrasound Test
  • Ultrasound, Medical
  • US
  • Ultrasonography

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Lymph node diagnosis by radiologist (benign or malignant) (Aim 2)
Time Frame: Up to 2 years
Will characterize the lymph node as benign or malignant by reviewing images from each imaging technique based on clinical criteria including node size, shape, margin, cortical thickness, stiffness, and vascularity obtained from B-mode, shear wave elastography, and Doppler imaging. Histopathology results will be used as the ground truth to measure sensitivity and specificity of each ultrasound technology for distinguishing between benign and malignant lymph nodes. The overall agreement of the new 3dimensional (D)-ultrasound (US) method with the biopsy result will be compared to that for 2D-US using McNemar's test. For clipped lymph nodes, the performance of 2D and 3D-US will be compared for localizing the clips.
Up to 2 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Mayo Clinic

Collaborators

National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Shigao D Chen, PhD, Mayo Clinic in Rochester

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 14, 2023

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 1, 2027

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 19, 2023

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 19, 2023

First Posted (Actual)

January 30, 2023

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 15, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 12, 2026

Last Verified

June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 22-006606
  • NCI-2023-00106 (Registry Identifier: CTRP (Clinical Trial Reporting Program))
  • R01EB031040 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

Yes

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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