Associations between whole tumor histogram analysis parameters derived from ADC maps and expression of EGFR, VEGF, Hif 1-alpha, Her-2 and Histone 3 in uterine cervical cancer.

OBJECTIVE: Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) can be quantified by apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and can predict tissue microstructure. The aim of the present study was to analyze possible associations between ADC histogram based parameters with different histopathological parameters in cervical squamous cell carcinoma.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: 18 female patients (age range 32-79 years) with squamous cell cervical carcinoma were retrospectively enrolled. In all cases, pelvic MRI was performed with a DWI (b-values 0 and 1000 s/mm2 ). Histogram analysis was performed as a whole lesion measurement. Histopathological parameters included expression of EGFR, VEGF, Hif1-alpha, Her2 and Histone 3. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to analyze associations between investigated parameters.

RESULTS: Analyze of the investigated ADC histogram parameters showed a good interreader variability, ranging from 0.705 for entropy to 0.959 for ADCmedian. EGFR expression correlated statistically significant with several histogram parameters. The highest correlation was observed for p75 (p = -0.562, P = 0.015). There were several correlations with histone 3, the highest with p25 (p = -0.610, P = 0.007). None of the ADC related parameters correlated statistically significant with expression of VEGF, Hif1-alpha and Her2.

CONCLUSION: Histogram analysis showed a good interreader agreement. ADC histogram parameters might be able to reflect expression of EGFR and histone 3 in cervical squamous cell carcinomas, but not expression of VEGF, Hif1-alpha and Her2.