Multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging assessment of whole tumour heterogeneity for chemoradiotherapy response prediction in rectal cancer

Trang Thanh Pham*, Gary Liney, Karen Wong, Christopher Henderson, Robba Rai, Petra L. Graham, Nira Borok, Minh Xuan Truong, Mark Lee, Joo-Shik Shin, Malcolm Hudson, Michael B Barton

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Background and purpose: Prediction of chemoradiotherapy response (CRT) in locally advanced rectal cancer would enable stratification of management. The purpose was to prospectively evaluate multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) assessment of tumour heterogeneity combining diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI for the prediction of CRT response in locally advanced rectal cancer.

Materials and methods: Patients with Stage II or III rectal adenocarcinoma undergoing neoadjuvant CRT and surgery underwent MRI (DWI and DCE) before, during (week 3), and after CRT (1 week before surgery). Patients with histopathology tumour regression grade (TRG) 0-1 were classified as responders, and TRG 2-3 were classified as non-responders. A whole tumour voxel-wise technique was used to produce apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and Ktrans (Tofts model) histograms derived from DWI and DCE-MRI, respectively. Logistic regression was used to predict response status for ADC and Ktrans quantiles.

Results: Thirty-three patients were included in this analysis; 16 responders, and 17 non-responders. On heterogeneity analysis, odds of being a responder were significantly higher after CRT (before surgery) for higher ADC 75th (p = 0.049) and ADC 90th (p = 0.034) percentile values. The Ktrans quantiles were lower in non-responders than responders before and during CRT, and higher after CRT although no significant association with response status was observed (p ≥ 0.10).

Conclusions: DWI-MRI after CRT (before surgery) incorporating a histogram analysis of whole tumour heterogeneity was predictive of CRT response in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer. DCE-MRI did not add value in response prediction.

Clinical trial registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) number ACTRN12616001690448.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)26-33
Number of pages8
JournalPhysics and Imaging in Radiation Oncology
Volume18
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2021

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Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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