Tumor Vascular Permeability Pattern Is Associated With Complete Response in Immunocompetent Patients With Newly Diagnosed Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma: Retrospective Cohort Study

A dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging (DCE-MRI) could provide the information about tumor drug delivery efficacy. We investigated the potential utility of the permeability pattern of DCE-MRI for predicting tumor response to high dose-methotrexate treatment and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with primary CNS lymphoma (PCNSL). Clinical and conventional imaging parameters were assessed as potential predictors of tumor response in 48 immunocompetent PCNSL patients in a preliminary study. Fifty additional immunocompetent patients (27 men and 23 women; mean age, 60.6 years) with PCNSL underwent DCE-MRI before starting first-line treatment with high dose-methotrexate. The DCE-MRI pattern was categorized as diffuse or nondiffuse. After 4 courses of high dose methotrexate, patients underwent follow-up brain MR imaging to identify their complete response (CR). Predictors of CR and PFS were analyzed using clinical parameters, conventional MRI, and DCE-MRI. CR was noted in 20 (74.1%) of 27 patients with diffuse DCE-MRI pattern and in 4 (17.4%) of 23 patients with nondiffuse DCE-MRI pattern. The diffuse DCE-MRI pattern showed a significantly higher association with CR than the nondiffuse pattern (P < 0.001). Multivariate Cox proportional hazards model revealed that the DCE-MRI pattern (hazard ratio = 0.70; P = 0.045), age (hazard ratio = 1.47; P = 0.041), and adjuvant autologous stem-cell transplantation (hazard ratio = 6.97; P = 0.003) tended to be associated with a PFS. The pretreatment diffuse DCE-MRI pattern can be used as a potential imaging biomarker for predicting CR and a longer PFS in patients with newly diagnosed PCNSLs.