Prognostic aspects of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in synchronous distant metastatic rectal cancer

To explore the correlations between DCE-MRI quantitative parameters and synchronous distant metastasis and the clinicopathological factors in rectal cancers.

Sixty-three patients with rectal cancer (synchronous distant metastasis, n = 31; non-metastasis, n = 32) were enrolled in this study. Student's t test and ANOVA were used to compare DCE-MRI parameters (K ^trans , K _ep and V _e ). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to find the reasonable threshold of DCE-MRI parameters to differentiate lesions with synchronous distant metastasis from those without metastasis.

The K ^trans , K _ep , and V _e value were significantly higher in the lesions with distant metastasis than in the lesions without distant metastasis (0.536 ± 0.242 vs. 0.299 ± 0.118 min^-1, p < 0.001; 1.598 ± 0.477 vs. 1.341 ± 0.390 min^-1, p = 0.022; and 0.324 ± 0.173 vs. 0.249 ± 0.091, p = 0.034; respectively). The K ^trans showed the highest AUCs of 0.788 (p < 0.001), with sensitivity of 61.29 % and specificity of 87.5 %, respectively.

DCE-MRI parameters may represent a prognostic indicator for synchronous distant metastases in patients with rectal cancer.

• The K ^trans , K _ep and V _e values correlated with synchronous distant metastasis. • Higher K ^trans , K _ep and V _e values were noted among patients with metastasis. • DCE-MRI parameters might represent a prognostic indicator for synchronous distant metastases.