Heterogeneity analysis of difusion‑weighted MRI for prediction and assessment of microstructural changes early after one cycle of induction chemotherapy in nasopharyngeal cancer patients

Abstract

Objective:

Purpose To evaluate whether the pretreatment apparent difusion coefcient (ADC) heterogeneity parameters and their alterations, after one cycle of induction chemotherapy, can be used as reliable markers of treatment response to induction chemotherapy in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer.

Materials and methods:

Ten patients were recruited and received induction chemotherapy (IC). Difusion-weighted imaging was performed prior to, during, and after IC. The frst-order ADC histogram parameters at the intra-treatment time-point were compared to the baseline time-point in the metastatic lymph nodes (LNs). Some ADC pretreatment parameters were combined with each other, employing discriminant analysis to achieve a feasible model to separate the complete response (CR) from the partial response (PR) groups.