Development and validation of a nomogram combined pre-operative quantitative MR parameters for the prediction of pathological WHO/ISUP grade in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

PURPOSE

To assess the predictive value of quantitative parameters derived from conventional MRI for determining the pathological WHO/ISUP grade in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) before surgery, and to construct a nomogram based on these parameters.

METHODS

This study analyzed ccRCC patients who underwent preoperative abdominal multi-sequence MRI, dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, and nephrectomy at our hospital. Patients were pathologically classified into low-grade (WHO/ISUP 1/2) and high-grade (WHO/ISUP 3/4) groups. Information on clinical characteristics and quantitative MR parameters was collected. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to create a nomogram incorporating the quantitative MR parameters with statistical significance to preoperatively predict the pathological grade of ccRCC. The area under the curve (AUC) was used to assess the nomogram's predictive performance.

RESULTS

Binary univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses identified maximum tumor diameter, ADC value, and corticomedullary enhancement as independent predictors of high-grade ccRCC. The quantitative MRI-based nomogram demonstrated high predictive performance, with an AUC of 0.936 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.901-0.972). What's more, we found an ADC value of 1.47 × 10mm/s and a corticomedullary enhancement value of 0.90 were determined to be the optimal cut-off values, yielding the highest Youden index for differentiating between low-grade and high-grade ccRCC. The calibration curve and the Hosmer-Lemeshow test revealed that the predicted probability of the quantitative-MR nomogram had a good fitness (χ2 = 12.542, p = 0.129).

CONCLUSION

The quantitative MR-based nomogram demonstrated excellent performance in the preoperative prediction of pathological WHO/ISUP grade in ccRCC.