Combing MRi perfusion and18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic biomarkers helps predict survival in advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma: A prospective multimodal imaging study

Sheng Chieh Chan, Chih Hua Yeh, Joseph Tung Chieh Chang, Kai Ping Chang, Jen Hung Wang, Shu Hang Ng*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

We prospectively investigated the prognostic value of imaging parameters for nasopha-ryngeal carcinoma (NPC) using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and 2-deoxy-2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET)/computed tomography (CT). Patients with stage III–IVb NPC underwent F-FDG PET/CT, DCE-MRI, and DWI before treatment. Kaplan-Meier and Cox-regression analyses were used to assess associations of PET and MRI imaging biomarkers with overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS). We used independent prognosticators to establish prognostic models; model performance was examined using Harrell’s concordance index (c-index). Sixty-one patients were available for analysis, as 13 patients died and 20 experienced recurrence. Total lesion glycolysis (TLG) (p = 0.002) from PET/CT and the initial area under the curve (iAUC) (p = 0.036) from DCE-MRI were identified as independent prognosticators of OS; Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA (p = 0.027), the extracellular volume fraction (Ve ) (p = 0.027) from DCE-MRI, and TLG/iAUC (p = 0.025) were significant predictors of RFS. The c-indices of the prognostic models incorporating TLG + iAUC in predicting OS and incorporating EBV DNA + Ve + TLG/iAUC in predicting RFS were 0.79 and 0.76, respectively. These were significantly higher than the corresponding c-indices of the TNM staging system (p = 0.047 and 0.025, respectively); they were also higher than those of models with only MRI or PET biomarkers. In conclusion, the combination of pretreatment DCE-MRI and18F-FDG PET/CT imaging biomarkers helps survival prediction in advanced NPC. Integrating MRI perfusion with PET metabolism and plasma EBV information may aid clinicians in planning the optimal personalized management strategy.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1550
JournalCancers
Volume13
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 01 04 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging
  • Head and neck neoplasms
  • Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging
  • PET/CT
  • Prognosis

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