Quantitative parameters correlated well with differentiation of squamous cell carcinoma at head and neck: a study of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI.

BACKGROUND: Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) is widely used for the diagnosis and prognostic assessment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). However, no research on grading HNSCC using DCE-MRI has been found. We hypothesize that DCE-MRI can grade the HNSCC non-invasively.

PURPOSE: To verify the hypothesis that DCE-MRI can grade the HNSCC non-invasively.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty-two patients with histopathologically proved HNSCC from September 2013 to February 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Chi-square test was used to compare patterns of time intensity curves (TICs) between well and poorly differentiated HNSCC. Two-sample t-test was performed to calculate the difference of volume transfer constant (Ktrans ), extravascular extracellular volume fraction (Ve ), and initial area under the curve (iAUC) between groups. The diagnostic ability and cut-off value were assessed by receiver operator characteristic analysis.

RESULTS: Most TICs of HNSCC are type III; no difference between well and poorly differentiated HNSCC has been found ( P > 0.05). The value of Ktrans , Ve , and iAUC for well and poorly differentiated HNSCC are (0.218 ± 0.048; 0.383 ± 0.074) min-1 , (0.605 ± 0.108; 0.712 ± 0.150), and (27.552 ± 6.238; 43.157 ± 9.148), respectively. Ktrans , Ve , and iAUC are higher in poorly differentiated HNSCC, compared with well differentiated HNSCC ( P < 0.001, 0.013, and < 0.001, respectively). Ktrans has the greatest diagnostic significance with Youden's index being 0.859 by cut-off value 0.270 min-1 . The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 95.0% and 90.9%, respectively.

CONCLUSION: The Ktrans , Ve , and iAUC of HNSCC can be reliable quantitative parameters for evaluating well and poorly differentiated HNSCC where Ktrans has the highest value.