Mui Alan W L, Lee Anne W M, Ng W T, Lee Victor H F, Vardhanabhuti Varut, Man Shei S Y, Chua Daniel T T, Guan X Y
Department of Radiotherapy, Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, Hong Kong.
Department of Clinical Oncology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Phys Imaging Radiat Oncol. 2022 Sep 12;24:30-35. doi: 10.1016/j.phro.2022.09.001. eCollection 2022 Oct.
Functional imaging has an established role in therapeutic monitoring of cancer treatments. This study evaluated the correlations of tumour permeability parameters derived from dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) and tumour cellularity derived from apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
Twenty NPC patients were examined with DCE-MRI and RESOLVE diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI). Tumour permeability parameters were quantitatively measured with Tofts compartment model. Volume transfer constant (K), volume of extravascular extracellular space (EES) per unit volume of tissue (V), and the flux rate constant between EES and plasma (K) from DCE-MRI scan were measured. The time-intensity curve was plotted from the 60 dynamic phases of DCE-MRI. The initial area under the curve for the first 60 s of the contrast agent arrival (iAUC60) was also calculated. They were compared with the ADC value derived from DW-MRI with Pearson correlation analyses.
Among the DCE-MRI permeability parameters, K had higher linearity in inverse correlation with ADC value (r = -0.69, p = <0.05). K (r = -0.60, p=<0.05) and iAUC60 (r = -0.64, p = <0.05) also had significant inverse correlations with ADC. V showed a significant positive correlation with ADC (r = 0.63, p = <0.05).
Nasopharyngeal tumour vascular permeability parameters derived from DCE-MRI scan were correlated linearly with tumour cellularity measured by free water diffusability with ADC. The clinical implementations of these linear correlations in the quantitative assessments of therapeutic response for NPC patients may be worth to further explore.
功能成像在癌症治疗的疗效监测中具有既定作用。本研究评估了鼻咽癌（NPC）中，动态对比增强磁共振成像（DCE-MRI）得出的肿瘤通透性参数与表观扩散系数（ADC）得出的肿瘤细胞密度之间的相关性。
对20例NPC患者进行了DCE-MRI和RESOLVE扩散加权磁共振成像（DW-MRI）检查。用Tofts房室模型定量测量肿瘤通透性参数。测量DCE-MRI扫描得出的容积转移常数（K）、每单位组织体积的血管外细胞外间隙（EES）容积（V）以及EES与血浆之间的通量速率常数（K）。从DCE-MRI的60个动态期绘制时间-强度曲线。还计算了对比剂到达后最初60秒的曲线下初始面积（iAUC60）。通过Pearson相关分析将它们与DW-MRI得出的ADC值进行比较。
在DCE-MRI通透性参数中，K与ADC值呈更高的负线性相关（r = -0.69，p = <0.05）。K（r = -0.60，p = <0.05）和iAUC60（r = -0.64，p = <0.05）与ADC也有显著的负相关。V与ADC呈显著正相关（r = 0.63，p = <0.05）。
DCE-MRI扫描得出的鼻咽肿瘤血管通透性参数与通过ADC自由水扩散率测量的肿瘤细胞密度呈线性相关。这些线性相关性在NPC患者治疗反应定量评估中的临床应用可能值得进一步探索。
