Survival analysis for apparent diffusion coefficient measures in children with embryonal brain tumours.

Embryonal brain tumors constitute a large and important subgroup of pediatric brain tumors. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measures have been previously used in the analysis of these tumors. We investigated a newly described ADC-derived parameter, the apparent transient coefficient in tumor (ATCT), a measure of the gradient change of ADC from the peri-tumoral edema into the tumor core, to study whether ATCT correlates with survival outcome. Sixty-one patients with histologically proven embryonal brain tumors and who had diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) as part of their clinical imaging were enrolled in a retrospective study correlating ADC measures with survival. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were constructed for extent of surgical resection, age <3 years at diagnosis, tumor type, and metastasis at presentation. A multivariate survival analysis was performed that took into consideration ATCT and variables found to be significant in the Kaplan-Meier analysis as covariates. Results from the multivariate analysis showed that ATCT was the only significant covariate (P < .001). Survival analysis using Kaplan-Meier curves, dividing the patients into 4 groups of increasing values of ATCT, showed that more negative values of ATCT were significantly associated with a poorer prognosis (P < .001). A statistically significant difference was observed for survival data with respect to the change in ADC from edema into the tumor volume. Results show that more negative ATCT values are significantly associated with a poorer survival among children with embryonal brain tumors, irrespective of tumor type, extent of resection, age <3 years at diagnosis, and metastasis at presentation.