Combined dynamic DCE-MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging to evaluate the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in cervical cancer

Purpose: To prospectively investigate changes in quantitative parameters of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in patients with cervical cancer before and after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). Methods: Thirty-eight patients with cervical cancer underwent DCE-MRI and DWI 1 week before and 4 weeks after NACT. The patients were classified into 2 groups: significant reaction (sCR) group and the non-sCR group. DCE-MRI parameters and ADC values were measured and compared between the 2 groups. Results: Before NACT, the mean Ktrans value was higher, but the mean Ve was lower, in the sCR group compared with the non-sCR group; these differences were statistically significant ( ptrans value and the delta (i.e., changed) value of Ktrans were significantly lower in the sCR group compared with the non-sCR group ( ptrans, DKtrans, and pre-mean Ktrans combined with post-mean ADC values were 0.801, 0.955, and 0.878, respectively ( ptrans (0.7020 min−1) and DKtrans (0.0437 min−1). Conclusions: Quantitative parameters (pre-mean Ktrans, DKtrans, and pre-mean Ktrans) combined with post-mean ADC could predict treatment efficacy more precisely. However, quantitative DCE-MRI combined with DWI could not significantly improve prognostic efficacy.