Correlations of tumour permeability parameters with apparent diffusion coefficient in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

<p> <span>Background and Purpose: 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). Material and Methods: 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</span>^trans<span>), volume of extravascular extracellular space (EES) per unit volume of tissue (V</span>_e<span>), and the flux rate constant between EES and plasma (K</span>_ep<span>) 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. Results: Among the DCE-MRI permeability parameters, K</span>_ep<span> had higher linearity in inverse correlation with ADC value (r = −0.69, p = <0.05). K</span>^trans<span> (r = −0.60, p=<0.05) and iAUC60 (r = −0.64, p = <0.05) also had significant inverse correlations with ADC. V</span>_e<span> showed a significant positive correlation with ADC (r = 0.63, p = [removed]</span> <br></p>