Correlation between apparent diffusion coefficient and tumor-stroma ratio in hybrid 18F-FDG PET/MRI: preliminary results of a rectal cancer cohort study

Shidong Hu; Xiaowei Xing; Jiajin Liu; Xi Liu; Jinhang Li; Wei Jin; Songyan Li; Yang Yan; Da Teng; Boyan Liu; Yufeng Wang; Baixuan Xu; Xiaohui Du

doi:10.21037/qims-21-938

Correlation between apparent diffusion coefficient and tumor-stroma ratio in hybrid ¹⁸F-FDG PET/MRI: preliminary results of a rectal cancer cohort study

Quant Imaging Med Surg. 2022 Aug;12(8):4213-4225. doi: 10.21037/qims-21-938.

Authors

Shidong Hu^#¹, Xiaowei Xing^#², Jiajin Liu^#³, Xi Liu⁴, Jinhang Li⁵, Wei Jin⁵, Songyan Li¹, Yang Yan¹, Da Teng¹, Boyan Liu¹, Yufeng Wang⁶, Baixuan Xu^#³, Xiaohui Du^#¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Surgery, The First Medical Center, Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital, Beijing, China.
² Department of Hernia and Abdominal Wall Surgery, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
³ Department of Nuclear Medicine, The First Medical Center, Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital, Beijing, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Department of Radiology, Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Beijing, China.
⁵ Department of Pathology, The First Medical Center, Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital, Beijing, China.
⁶ Department of Hospital Management, The First Medical Center, Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) General Hospital, Beijing, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: To explore possible correlations between the tumor-stroma ratio (TSR) and different imaging features of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (¹⁸F-FDG PET/MRI) in untreated rectal cancer patients.

Methods: A patients with rectal cancer were included in this study. All participants were examined preoperatively with whole-body ¹⁸F-FDG PET/MRI. Two pathologists evaluated the TSR of tumors together. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and PET-related parameters of the primary lesions were measured and compared between the stroma-high and stroma-low groups. Pearson's correlation or Spearman's rank correlation were used to evaluate the correlation between the ADC values, PET-related parameters, and pathological indices.

Results: Our results showed that in the untreated rectal cancer patients, the ADC mean values correlated with the TSR (r=0.327; P=0.007), and stroma-high (low TSR) rectal cancer corresponded to relatively lower ADC mean values (813.54±88.68 vs. 879.92±133.18; P=0.018). The ADC mean and ADC minimum (ADCmin) values were found to be negatively correlated with the pathological T stages (r=-0.384, P=0.001; r=-0.416, P=0.001, respectively) as well as the largest tumor diameters (r=-0.340, P=0.005; r=-0.314, P=0.010, respectively) of rectal cancer. In addition, the pathological T stages correlated with all PET-related metabolic parameters, including mean standard uptake value (SUV), maximum SUV (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) (r=0.338, P=0.006; r=0.350, P=0.004; r=0.326, P=0.007; and r=0.472, P<0.001, respectively). Our results also identified associations between the ADCmin values and SUVmean, SUVmax, and TLG (r=-0.335, P=0.006; r=-0.343, P=0.005; and r=-0.343, P=0.005, respectively). However, there were no statistical correlations between the PET/MRI parameters and the immunohistochemical (IHC) results.

Conclusions: This study indicated that the intratumoral heterogeneity measured by PET/MRI may reflect characteristics of the tumor microenvironment. Hence, PET/MRI parameters might be helpful in predicting tumor aggressiveness and prognosis.

Keywords: Rectal cancer; apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC); positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI); tumor-stroma ratio (TSR).