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Nasopharyngeal carcinoma: correlation of apparent diffusion coefficient value with prognostic parameters
Ahmed Abdel Khalek Abdel Razek1, Elsharawey Kamal
1Department of Radiology, Mansoura Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura 13351, Egypt. arazek@mans.edu.eg
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to correlate the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value with the prognostic parameters of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
Materials And Methods:
This was a prospective study conducted on 30 consecutive patients (19 men, 11 women; mean age 61 years) with NPC. Patients underwent diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance (DW-MR) singleshot echoplanar imaging at 1.5 Tesla. NPC ADC value was correlated with pathological tumour type, pathological tumour grade, tumour volume and nodal status.
Results:
Mean NPC ADC value was 0.99 ± 0.11 × 10(-3)mm(2)/s. ADC values of well-differentiated and moderately differentiated tumours differed significantly (p=0.005) from those of poorly differentiated and undifferentiated NPC. There was also a significant difference in ADC value among small, medium and large tumour volume (p=0.03). ADC value was also significantly lower (p=0.003) when metastatic cervical lymph nodes were present. ADC value correlated inversely with tumour volume (r=-0.799, p=0.03).
Conclusions:
ADC value can be considered a noninvasive prognostic parameter that correlates well with prognostic parameters of NPC.
