Kousi Evanthia, O'Flynn Elizabeth A M, Borri Marco, Morgan Veronica A, deSouza Nandita M, Schmidt Maria A
CR-UK and EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT, United Kingdom.
CR-UK and EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT, United Kingdom.
Magn Reson Imaging. 2018 Oct;52:53-61. doi: 10.1016/j.mri.2018.05.014. Epub 2018 May 31.
Baseline T2* relaxation time has been proposed as an imaging biomarker in cancer, in addition to Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced (DCE) MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) parameters. The purpose of the current work is to investigate sources of error in T2* measurements and the relationship between T2* and DCE and DWI functional parameters in breast cancer.
Five female volunteers and thirty-two women with biopsy proven breast cancer were scanned at 3 T, with Research Ethics Committee approval. T2* values of the normal breast were acquired from high-resolution, low-resolution and fat-suppressed gradient-echo sequences in volunteers, and compared. In breast cancer patients, pre-treatment T2*, DCE MRI and DWI were performed at baseline. Pathologically complete responders at surgery and non-responders were identified and compared. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were performed.
There were no significant differences between T2* values from high-resolution, low-resolution and fat-suppressed datasets (p > 0.05). There were not significant differences between baseline functional parameters in responders and non-responders (p > 0.05). However, there were differences in the relationship between T2* and contrast-agent uptake in responders and non-responders. Voxels of similar characteristics were grouped in 5 clusters, and large intra-tumoural variations of all parameters were demonstrated.
Breast T2* measurements at 3 T are robust, but spatial resolution should be carefully considered. T2* of breast tumours at baseline is unrelated to DCE and DWI parameters and contribute towards describing functional heterogeneity of breast tumours.
除动态对比增强（DCE）磁共振成像（MRI）和扩散加权成像（DWI）参数外，基线T2弛豫时间已被提议作为癌症的一种成像生物标志物。本研究的目的是调查T2测量中的误差来源以及乳腺癌中T2*与DCE和DWI功能参数之间的关系。
在获得研究伦理委员会批准后，对5名女性志愿者和32名经活检证实患有乳腺癌的女性进行了3T扫描。从志愿者的高分辨率、低分辨率和脂肪抑制梯度回波序列中获取正常乳腺的T2值，并进行比较。在乳腺癌患者中，在基线时进行治疗前T2、DCE MRI和DWI检查。识别并比较手术时病理完全缓解者和未缓解者。进行了主成分分析（PCA）和聚类分析（CA）。
高分辨率、低分辨率和脂肪抑制数据集的T2值之间无显著差异（p>0.05）。缓解者和未缓解者的基线功能参数之间无显著差异（p>0.05）。然而，缓解者和未缓解者在T2与造影剂摄取之间的关系上存在差异。具有相似特征的体素被分为5类，并显示出所有参数在肿瘤内的巨大差异。
3T时乳腺T2测量结果可靠，但应仔细考虑空间分辨率。基线时乳腺肿瘤的T2与DCE和DWI参数无关，有助于描述乳腺肿瘤的功能异质性。
