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Published on: December 15, 2014
MRI features and whole-lesion apparent diffusion coefficient histogram analysis of brain metastasis from non-small
1Department of Magnetic Resonance, Lanzhou University Second Hospital, Lanzhou, China; Second Clinical School, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China; Gansu Province Clinical Research Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging, Lanzhou, China.
Aim:
To explore the utility of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) characteristics and whole-lesion apparent diffusion coefficient histogram analysis of brain metastasis from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the differentiation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation status.
Materials And Methods:
Forty-eight patients with brain metastases from NSCLC were enrolled in this retrospective study. Patients were subtyped into EGFR mutation (23 cases) and wild-type (25 cases) groups. Whole-lesion histogram metrics were derived from the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps, and imaging features were evaluated according to conventional MRI. Student's t-test or Mann-Whitney U-test, chi-squared test, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were performed to discriminate the two groups and to determine the diagnostic efficacy of ADC histogram parameters.
Results:
EGFR mutation group had more multiple brain metastases, less peritumoural brain oedema (PTBO), and lower peritumoural brain oedema index (PTBO-I) than EGFR wild-type group (all p<0.05). In addition, 90th and 75th percentiles of ADC and maximum ADC in the EGFR mutation group were significantly higher than in the EGFR wild-type group (all p<0.05). Ninetieth percentile of ADC had the highest area under the curve (AUC; 0.711), and it was found to outperform 75th percentile of ADC (AUC, 0.662; p=0.039) and maximum ADC (AUC, 0.681).
Conclusions:
Whole-lesion ADC histogram analysis and MRI features of brain metastasis from NSCLC are expected to be potential biomarkers to non-invasively differentiate the EGFR mutation status.

