Radiologic Response Assessment in Pediatric Soft Tissue Sarcoma: Computed-Assisted Volume Evaluation

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Radiology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Accurate tumor size assessment is crucial for evaluating soft tissue sarcoma treatment response.
• Traditional dimensional measurements may lack precision.
• Software-assisted volume calculation offers a novel approach to tumor measurement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare three dimensional assessment methods for soft tissue sarcoma.
• To evaluate a new software-assisted volume calculation method.
• To investigate interobserver and intermethod agreement in chemotherapy response classification.

Main Methods:

• 34 pediatric patients with soft tissue sarcoma were studied.
• Tumor size was measured using maximum axis, estimated volume, and computed volume (software-assisted).
• Interobserver and intermethod agreement were assessed using concordance correlation coefficients and Cohen's kappa.

Main Results:

• High interobserver agreement was observed for all methods, with slight superiority for software-assisted volume.
• Bland-Altman plots revealed lower agreement for maximum axis and estimated volume.
• Intermethod agreement for chemotherapy response classification was poor.

Conclusions:

• Computed volume is the most accurate method for soft tissue sarcoma tumor size assessment.
• One- and three-dimensional methods are not concordant for chemotherapy response classification.
• The maximum axis method may underestimate treatment response, leading to erroneous regimen changes.