Keywords:
Diagnostic or prognostic study, Retrospective, Outcomes, Treatment effects, Radiation therapy / Oncology, Chemotherapy, MR-Functional imaging, MR-Diffusion/Perfusion, Oncology, Head and neck, Head and Neck, Performed at one institution
Authors:
A. Leben1, A. Novakovic1, D. Pirnat2, K. Surlan Popovic1, M. Garbajs1; 1Ljubljana/SI, 2Velenje/SI
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2020/C-07195
Purpose
Concomitant chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) with cisplatin is a method of choice for treatment of loco-regionally advanced head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma (HNSCC) [1]. Radiologic imaging could predict treatment efficacy before the start of CRT, therefore allowing use of individualized protocol adjustment in case of non-responsive tumours. Recently, magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) with intra-voxel incoherent motion (IVIM) has shown promise for assessing tumour response. IVIM has been reported to allow for separate analysis of pure diffusion and perfusion in tissues using the bi-exponential curve fitting model on the diffusion weighted data with multiple b values [2]. That could help us evaluate angiogenesis and cellularity of the tumour [3].
Only few studies with contradictory results have addressed the role of IVIM parameters for evaluating treatment response of head and neck cancers to CRT [4-8]. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the role of pretreatment IVIM diffusion imaging parameters in predicting treatment response of loco-regionally advanced HNSCC treated with concomitant CRT. In addition, we evaluated the correlation between IVIM diffusion imaging parameters and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC).