Diffusion-Weighted Echo-Planar MRI: A Valuable Tool for Differentiating Primary Parotid Gland Tumors?

Abstract

Diffusion-weighted echo-planar MRI seems to be a valuable tool for differentiating benign from malignant primary parotid gland tumors.

MR Imaging of Parotid Tumors: Typical Lesion Characteristics in MR Imaging Improve Discrimination between Benign and Malignant Disease

“…Recently, new MR imaging techniques such as DWI and proton MR spectroscopy have shown promising results in the differentiation between benign and malignant salivary gland tumors. [31][32][33][34][35] However, the good DWI results for differentiating benign from malignant parotid gland lesions in 45 histologically proved tumors 32 could not be confirmed by the same group in a larger scale study evaluating 136 parotid tumors. 35 Although DWI was able to differentiate pleomorphic adenomas and myoepithelial adenomas from all other entities, a final differentiation between benign and malignant parotid gland tumors based on apparent diffusion coefficient values was not possible due to an overlap between the group of benign and malignant lesions and between groups.…”

Evaluating of Parotid Gland Tumours According to Diffusion Weighted MRI

“…However, 1H-MRS couldn't be performed in small tumors because of the risk of contaminating the signals by adjacent structures. As a result of recent studies, the DWI which is the techniques based on MRI, seems having the highest potential to detect different histologic subtypes of parotid gland tumors noninvasively (17)(18)(19)(20)(21). ADC=Apparent diffusion coefficient ( x 10-3 mm²/s ± SD) ADC value is affected by morphology of tumour including ratio of nucleus/cytoplasm and cellular density (22) and an inverse correlation between the ADC value and tumor cellularity has been shown in experimental models, and this has been clinically validated (23)(24)(25).…”

The Outline of Prognosis and New Advances in Diagnosis of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC): Review of the Literature

“…It evaluates the mobility of water in different tissues to generate diffusion weighted images and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps. Diffusion weighted images are being used to identify a range of cancers, and the ADC value improves characterization of head and neck tumours, and the ADC of the mass lesions studied had an inverse relationship with lesion cellularity [81][82][83]. The ADC values can also be used to monitor cancer treatment.…”