Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in malignant pleural mesothelioma: prediction of outcome based on DCE-MRI measurements in patients undergoing cytotoxic chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: The malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) response rate to chemotherapy is low. The identification of imaging biomarkers that could help guide the most effective therapy approach for individual patients is highly desirable. Our aim was to investigate the dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MR parameters as predictors for progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with MPM treated with cisplatin-based chemotherapy. METHODS: Thirty-two consecutive patients with MPM were enrolled in this prospective study. Pretreatment and intratreatment DCE-MRI were scheduled in each patient. The DCE parameters were analyzed using the extended Tofts (ET) and the adiabatic approximation tissue homogeneity (AATH) model. Comparison analysis, logistic regression and ROC analysis were used to identify the predictors for the patient’s outcome. RESULTS: Patients with higher pretreatment ET and AATH-calculated K(trans) and v(e) values had longer OS (P≤.006). Patients with a more prominent reduction in ET-calculated K(trans) and k(ep) values during the early phase of chemotherapy had longer PFS (P =.008). No parameter was identified to predict PFS. Pre-treatment ET-calculated K(trans) was found to be an independent predictive marker for longer OS (P=.02) demonstrating the most favourable discrimination performance compared to other DCE parameters with an estimated sensitivity of 89% and specificity of 78% (AUC 0.9, 95% CI 0.74-0.98, cut off > 0.08 min(-1)). CONCLUSIONS: In the present study, higher pre-treatment ET-calculated K(trans) values were associated with longer OS. The results suggest that DCE-MRI might provide additional information for identifying MPM patients that may respond to chemotherapy. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12885-022-09277-x.