Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 3, 2025

Tracking the Mammary Architectural Features and Detecting Breast Cancer with Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Published on: December 15, 2014
Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Diffusion Weighted Imaging-Based Histogram in Predicting Mesenchymal Transition
Song-Qi Cai1, Zhen-Yu Song2, Min-Rong Wu3
1Department of Radiology, Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Rationale And Objectives:
To investigate the value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) findings in predicting mesenchymal transition (MT) high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC).
Materials And Methods:
Patients with HGSOC were enrolled from May 2017 to December 2020, who underwent pelvic MRI including DWI (b = 0,1000 s/mm2) before surgery, and were assigned to the MT HGSOC or non-MT HGSOC group according to histopathology results. Clinical characteristics and MRI features including DWI-based histogram metrics were assessed and compared between the two groups. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify the significant variables associated with MT HGSOC - these variables were then incorporated into a predictive nomogram, and ROC curve analysis was subsequently carried out to evaluate diagnostic performance.
Results:
A total of 81 consecutive patients were recruited for pelvic MRI before surgery, including 37 (45.7%) MT patients and 44 (54.3%) non-MT patients. At univariate analysis, the features significantly related to MT HGSOC were identified as absence of discrete primary ovarian mass, pouch of Douglas implants, ovarian mass size, tumor volume, mean, SD, median, and 95th percentile apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values (all p < 0.05). At multivariate analysis, the absence of discrete primary ovarian mass {odds ratio (OR): 46.477; p = 0.025}, mean ADC value ≤ 1.105 (OR: 1.023; p = 0.009), and median ADC value ≤ 1.038 (OR: 0.982; p = 0.034) were found to be independent risk factors associated with MT HGSOC. The combination of all independent criteria yielded the largest AUC of 0.82 with a sensitivity of 83.87% and specificity of 66.67%, superior to any of the single predictor alone (p ≤ 0.012). The predictive C-index nomogram performance of the combination was 0.82.
Conclusion:
The combination of absence of discrete primary ovarian mass, lower mean ADC value, and median ADC value may be helpful for preoperatively predicting MT HGSOC.

