Differentiation between stage I ovarian cancer and borderline epithelial ovarian tumor by apparent diffusion coefficient value

Abstract

To clarify usefulness of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value in the differential diagnosis of stage I malignant epithelial ovarian tumor (MOT) and borderline epithelial ovarian tumor (BOT), the ADC value of the solid portion or thickened wall of ovarian tumors was evaluated by a 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging system in 18 cases of BOT and MOT. The median of average ADC value was 1.668 × 10 −3 mm 2 /s for BOT and 1.021 × 10 −3 mm 2 /s for MOT (p = 0.0005), and the median of minimum ADC value was 1.394 × 10 −3 mm 2 /s for BOT and 0.812× 10 −3 mm 2 /s for MOT (p = 0.0006), both of which were significantly lower in MOT than that in BOT. So the ADC value is useful and especially the minimum ADC value is useful in that it can easily measure the ROI so that it contains solid portion or thickened wall.