Assessment of aggressiveness of rectal cancer using 3-T MRI: correlation between the apparent diffusion coefficient as a potential imaging biomarker and histologic prognostic factors

Abstract

Significant correlations were found between mean ADC values and differentiation grade. ADC may be useful as an imaging biomarker of tumor aggressiveness, but it cannot serve as an independent biomarker of advanced rectal cancer.

Prognostic Value of Diffusion MR Imaging and Clinical-Pathologic Factors in Patients with Rectal Cancer

“…Previous studies reported that pelvic MR imaging was useful for the evaluation of tumor aggressiveness, extramural depth of tumor invasion, and extramural vascular invasion (8)(9)(10)(11). ADC value was widely used especially for the evaluation of tumor aggressiveness and correlated with worse prognostic factors, including pathological T stage, plasmatic CA19-9 level, Ki-67 labeling index, and tumor differentiation grade (9,12).…”

“…ADC value was widely used especially for the evaluation of tumor aggressiveness and correlated with worse prognostic factors, including pathological T stage, plasmatic CA19-9 level, Ki-67 labeling index, and tumor differentiation grade (9,12). Clinical significance of ADC value is likely associated with the fact that malignant tumors contain a high degree of cellularity and interstitial components such as inflammatory cell infiltration, fibrosis, interstitial edema, tumor necrosis, and mucin.…”

“…Recently, in order to promote characterization of tumor tissue property, MR imaging protocols have been expanded to incorporate diffusion-weighted MR imaging that assesses the diffusivities of water molecules in tissue. Previous studies reported that apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value measured from diffusion-weighted MR images highly correlated with pathological T or N stage, tumor differentiation grade, and extramural depth of tumor in patients with rectal cancer (8)(9)(10). However, to our knowledge, no published study evaluated how ADC value is associated with postoperative local recurrence, distant metastasis, and disease-free survival in patients with rectal cancer.…”

Diffusion-weighted MRI of epithelial ovarian cancers: Correlation of apparent diffusion coefficient values with histologic grade and surgical stage

“…focal lesions [6][7][8][9][10]. Furthermore, the quantitative measurement of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values has also been proposed as a useful imaging biomarker in various types of tumors to differentiate benign and malignant lesions as well as to assess tumor grade and aggressiveness that help predict survival rates [7,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17].…”

Imaging in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases - Magnetic Resonance Imaging

“…The ADC value and thus the mobility of water molecules decrease with increased tissue cellularity such as inflammation or malignancy. The ADC value may also be used to grade tissue differentiation as shown recently in patients with rectal cancer [17] . The ADC significantly decreased with poorer differentiation of the cancer.…”