Imaging features and differentiation between benign and malignant Brenner tumors in a multi-center cohort

To explore the imaging features of histopathologically confirmed ovarian Brenner tumors (BTs) and to improve the accuracy of differential diagnosis between benign and borderline or malignant variants.

A retrospective analysis was conducted on clinical and imaging data from patients with pathologically confirmed ovarian BTs, collected from five medical centers between January 2014 and December 2024. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were utilized to identify independent risk factors associated with borderline or malignant BTs.

Clinically, the incidence of elevated serum CA125 levels was significantly greater in the borderline/malignant group compared to the benign group (p < 0.05). Regarding imaging characteristics, variables including maximum tumor diameter, tumor composition, tumor margin, presence of papillary projections, calcification pattern, degree of enhancement, as well as CT attenuation values between the non-contrast and the arterial or venous phases, demonstrated statistically significant differences between benign and malignant tumors (p < 0.05). Tumor maximum diameter, papillary projections and venous-phase CT net enhancement were identified as independent risk factors associated with borderline/malignant BTs. The combined model showed promising discriminative ability (AUC 0.956), but this result requires extreme caution.

In pathology-confirmed BTs, maximum tumor diameter, presence of papillary projections, and venous-phase CT net enhancement are valuable markers for differentiating benign from borderline or malignant subtypes. These features may assist in preoperative imaging assessment and risk categorization.