Department of Radiology, Changzhou Cancer Hospital of Soochow University, 68 Honghe Road, Changzhou, 213000, Jiangsu, PR China.
BMC Med Imaging. 2023 Jun 1;23(1):69. doi: 10.1186/s12880-023-01029-y.
The use of the apparent transverse relaxation rate (R2) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) has not been previously reported in the literature. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the R2 value in evaluating response to concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in patients with NPC.
Forty-one patients with locoregionally advanced NPC confirmed by pathology were examined by blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before and after CCRT, and conventional MRI was performed 3 months after the completion of CCRT. All patients were divided into a responding group (RG) and a nonresponding group (NRG), according to MRI findings 3 months after the end of treatment. The R2 values before (R2*) and after (R2) CCRT and the ΔR2 (ΔR2=R2 - R2) were calculated in the tumor.
Among the 41 patients, 26 were in the RG and 15 were in the NRG. There was no statistical difference in the R2 between RG and NRG (P = 0.307); however, there were significant differences in R2 and ΔR2 (P < 0.001). The area under the curve of R2 and ΔR2 for predicting the therapeutic response of NPC was 0.897 and 0.954, respectively, with cutoff values of 40.95 and 5.50 Hz, respectively.
The R2 value can be used as a potential imaging indicator to evaluate the therapeutic response of locoregionally advanced NPC.
目前文献中尚未报道过鼻咽癌细胞（NPC）表观横向弛豫率（R2）的应用。本研究旨在探讨 R2 值在评估 NPC 患者同步放化疗（CCRT）反应中的作用。
对 41 例经病理证实的局部晚期 NPC 患者在 CCRT 前后进行血氧水平依赖（BOLD）磁共振成像（MRI）检查，并在 CCRT 完成后 3 个月进行常规 MRI 检查。所有患者根据治疗结束后 3 个月的 MRI 结果分为反应组（RG）和非反应组（NRG）。计算肿瘤在 CCRT 前后的 R2 值（R2*和 R2）和 R2 变化值（ΔR2=R2-R2）。
在 41 例患者中，26 例为 RG，15 例为 NRG。RG 和 NRG 之间的 R2 值无统计学差异（P=0.307）；然而，R2 和 ΔR2 值有显著差异（P<0.001）。R2 和 ΔR2 预测 NPC 治疗反应的曲线下面积分别为 0.897 和 0.954，截断值分别为 40.95 和 5.50 Hz。
R2 值可作为评估局部晚期 NPC 治疗反应的潜在影像学指标。
