T2*-weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) of rectal cancer: correlation with clinical histopathologic prognostic factors

Histopathologic prognostic factors of rectal cancer are closely associated with local recurrence and distant metastasis. We aim to investigate the feasibility of T2*WI in assessment of clinical prognostic factors of rectal cancer, and compare with DKI.This retrospective study enrolled 50 out of 205 patients with rectal cancer according to the inclusion criteria. The following parameters were obtained: R2* from T2*WI, mean diffusivity (MDThere were positive correlations between R2* and multiple prognostic factors of rectal cancer such as T category, N category, tumor grade, CEA level, and LVI (P 0.004). MDR2* and DKI-derived parameters were associated with different histopathological prognostic factors, and might act as noninvasive biomarkers for histopathological characterization of rectal cancer.