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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Therapy Testing in a Spheroid-based 3D Cell Culture Model for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Published on: April 20, 2018
Multiple diffusion models for predicting pathologic response of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma to neoadjuvant
Bingmei Bai1, Long Cui2, Funing Chu1
1Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University & Henan Cancer Hospital, No. 127 Dongming Road, Zhengzhou, 450008, Henan, China.
Background:
To assess the feasibility and diagnostic performance of the fractional order calculus (FROC), continuous-time random-walk (CTRW), diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI), intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM), mono-exponential (MEM) and stretched exponential models (SEM) for predicting response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).
Materials And Methods:
This study prospectively included consecutive ESCC patients with baseline and follow up MR imaging and pathologically confirmed cT1-4aN + M0 or T3-4aN0M0 and underwent radical resection after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) between July 2019 and January 2023. Patients were divided into pCR (TRG 0) and non-pCR (TRG1 + 2 + 3) groups according to tumor regression grading (TRG). The Pre-, Post- and Delta-treatment models were built. 18 predictive models were generated according to different feature categories, based on six models by five-fold cross-validation. Areas under the curve (AUCs) of the models were compared by using DeLong method.
Results:
Overall, 90 patients (71 men, 19 women; mean age, 64 years ± 6 [SD]) received NACT and underwent baseline and Post-NACT esophageal MRI, with 29 patients in the pCR group and 61 patients in the non-pCR group. Among 18 predictive models, The Pre-, Post-, and Delta-CTRW model showed good predictive efficacy (AUC = 0.722, 0.833 and 0.790). Additionally, the Post-FROC model (AUC = 0.907) also exhibited good diagnostic performance.
Conclusions:
Our study indicates that the CTRW model, along with the Post-FROC model, holds significant promise for the future of NACT efficacy prediction in ESCC patients.

