An Analysis of Delta Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Values for Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Classification and Ki-67...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Radiology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a prevalent malignancy with high mortality.
• Distinguishing between Type I and Type II EOC is crucial for prognosis and treatment.
• Current diagnostic methods have limitations in preoperative differentiation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the diagnostic performance of delta apparent diffusion coefficient (dADC) in differentiating Type I and Type II EOC.
• To investigate the correlation between dADC values and Ki-67 expression as a marker of tumor proliferation.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 95 EOC patients (September 2021 - August 2023).
• Preoperative MRI with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) was performed.
• Calculation of minimum ADC (minADC), maximum ADC (maxADC), and dADC values from tumor components; Ki-67 expression analyzed postoperatively.

Main Results:

• Type II EOC showed significantly lower maxADC and minADC, and higher dADC compared to Type I EOC (P<0.05).
• dADC demonstrated superior efficacy in distinguishing between Type I and Type II EOC over minADC and maxADC (P<0.05).
• ROC analysis yielded an AUC of 0.982 for dADC with 95.3% sensitivity and 97.3% specificity at a threshold of 0.31×10-3 mm²/s.
• A positive correlation was observed between dADC and Ki-67 expression.

Conclusions:

• dADC is a valuable non-invasive biomarker for accurate preoperative differentiation of Type I and Type II EOC.
• dADC values can potentially reflect the proliferative activity of EOC cells, correlating with Ki-67 expression.