| PURPOSE: The primary aim of this prospective study was to evaluate therelationship between dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging(DCE-MRI) quantitative parameters and clinicopathological features ofnasopharyngeal carcinoma and assess their potential as new prognostic predictors.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Staging scan and DCE-MRI was performed on29continuous cases of pathologically proved nasopharyngeal carcinoma using Achieva3.0T TX MR imaging systems. Data were analysed used Permeability processing toolto calculate transfer constant (Ktrans), rate constant (Kep) and leakage space (Ve) ofthe primary lesion and internal pterygoid muscle. Microvessel density (MVD) andvascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) of biopsy specimens were evaluated byimmunohistochemical assay. All findings were analyzed prospectively and correlatedwith tumour/node/metastasis (TNM) staging and clinical staging (2008StagingSystem). The correlation between radiological and immunohistochemical markerswere studied.RESULTS: Mean Ktrans, Kep and Ve for tumors were as follows: Ktrans0.432±0.220/min, Kep0.749±0.343/min, Ve0.979±0.631%. There were significantdifference between tumors and internal pterygoid muscle for Ktrans andKep(p=0.000), but not Ve (p=0.776). Kep showed moderate negative correlation withclinical staging (r=-0.590, p=0.001), T staging (r=-0.384, p=0.040) and N staging(r=-0.434, p=0.019), respectively. Ktrans showed moderate negative correlation withN staging(r=-0.590, p=0.001) while Ve showed moderate positive correlation with Tstaging(r=0.502, P=0.006). MVD and VEGF revealed no significant correlation withthe clinicopathological findings described above (p>0.05). Ktrans, Kep, and Verevealed no significant correlation with MVD and VEGF findings (p>0.05).CONCLUSION: T1W DCE-MRI has the ability of assessing tumor vascular permeability, and our results first suggested that the quantitative parameters weresignificantly related to clinical stage of NPC. |
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