Keywords:
Abdomen, Genital / Reproductive system female, Oncology, MR, MR-Functional imaging, Diagnostic procedure, Imaging sequences, Radiation therapy / Oncology, Cancer, Molecular, genomics and proteomics, Neoplasia
Authors:
H.-J. Meyer, P. Gundermann, G. Hamerla, A. K. Höhn, A. Surov; Leipzig/DE
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-0768
Aims and objectives
Cervical cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer death in females worldwide (1).
Due to its excellent soft tissue contrast,
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been established as the best imaging modality for staging of cervical cancers (2).
Thus it is widely clinically used for local tumor staging for this entity.
Nowadays,
radiological images can further be investigated quantitatively by advanced imaging analyses.
One of these techniques is a histogram based approach (3).
This method includes every voxel in a region of interest (ROI) that results in a histogram and,
thusly,
statistically information about the tumor can be provided (3).
Thereby,
multiple parameters,
namely percentiles,
mean,
maximal,
minimal and median values,
mode,
skewness,
kurtosis and entropy can be acquired.
It is believed that heterogeneity displayed by the histogram might also reflect heterogeneity of tumor microstructure and,
therefore,
a better prediction of tumor biology might be possible using non-invasively imaging methods (3).
The reflection of histopathological features by imaging analysis might be crucial for modern oncology because imaging can be performed serially and noninvasively contrary to histopathology and might,
therefore,
be of potential benefit in regard of tumor response evaluation.
This might be especially of interest because conventional morphological sequences are routinely acquired during every MR investigation of the pelvis and are not associated with additional investment of time or technical resources.
Therefore,
the aim of this study was to elucidate possible associations between histogram based parameters derived from morphological sequences and expression of EGFR,
Hif1-alpha,
VEGF,
Her 2 receptor and Histone 3 in cervical cancer.