Correlation between diffusion kurtosis and intravoxel incoherent motion derived (IVIM) parameters and tumor tissue composition in rectal cancer: a pilot study.

Abstract

To correlate non-invasive quantitative diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and intravoxel incoherent motion-derived (IVIM) parameters with rectal cancer composition assessed by the expression of caudal-type homeobox 2 (CDX-2), Vimentin (VIM), CD34 and Ki-67 on resected tissues, as well as the tumor stroma ratio (TSR) and the results of H&E and Masson staining. A prospective study of 26 patients with rectal cancer who underwent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, including DKI with 4 b values and IVIM at 3.0T prior to surgery. Primary tumor was harvested and fixed for H&E, immunohistochemistry and Masson staining. One-way ANOVA was used to test the differences. Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression analyses were applied to evaluation the correlations. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADCDKI) and MKDKI all exhibited significant differences in subgroups with different T stages (P < 0.05) and among high- and low- grade rectal cancer (P < 0.05). MDDKI showed a moderate negative correlation with CDX-2 (r = - 0.42, P = 0.040) and a moderate positive correlation with CD34 (r = 0.42, P = 0.041). ADCIVIM exhibited a moderate positive correlation with Masson staining (r = 0.426, P = 0.048) DIVIM showed a moderate negative correlation with CDX-2 (r = - 0.58, P = 0.005). [Formula: see text] showed a moderate positive correlation with VIM (r = 0.445, P = 0.033). ADCDKI and MKDKI demonstrated a higher correlation with T stages and histologic grades. MDDKI showed significant correlations with CDX-2 and CD34. ADCIVIM showed significant correlation with Masson. DIVIM showed significant correlations with CDX-2 and [Formula: see text] showed significant correlation with VIM. These findings should be validated in a larger study.