Serial Texture Analyses on ADC Maps for Evaluation of Antiangiogenic Therapy in Rat Breast Cancer

We investigated the correlation between texture features on apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps and histological vascular parameters of FN13762 rat breast cancers after antiangiogenic therapy.

FN13762 cancer cells were implanted into 30 rats, and bevacizumab was intraperitoneally administered to 15 (treated group). For each rat, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was obtained at five time points after baseline examination. Serial texture analyses were performed on ADC maps and extracted texture parameters were correlated with histological vascular parameters.

Entropy of the ADC values correlated with microvessel density in the treated group (r=0.493, p=0.06). Hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha showed the highest correlation coefficient with the 5th percentile ADC value (r=0.844, p<0.001). Vascular endothelial growth factor was significantly correlated with homogeneity on ADC map (r=-0.521, p=0.046). In the control group, no texture features showed significant correlations with histological vascular parameters.

ADC map texture features may reflect histological vascular changes after antiangiogenic therapy.