Correlation between apparent diffusion coefficient and tumor-stroma ratio in hybrid (18)F-FDG PET/MRI: preliminary results of a rectal cancer cohort study

BACKGROUND: To explore possible correlations between the tumor-stroma ratio (TSR) and different imaging features of fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging ((18)F-FDG PET/MRI) in untreated rectal cancer patients. METHODS: A patients with rectal cancer were included in this study. All participants were examined preoperatively with whole-body (18)F-FDG PET/MRI. Two pathologists evaluated the TSR of tumors together. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and PET-related parameters of the primary lesions were measured and compared between the stroma-high and stroma-low groups. Pearson’s correlation or Spearman’s rank correlation were used to evaluate the correlation between the ADC values, PET-related parameters, and pathological indices. RESULTS: Our results showed that in the untreated rectal cancer patients, the ADC mean values correlated with the TSR (r=0.327; P=0.007), and stroma-high (low TSR) rectal cancer corresponded to relatively lower ADC mean values (813.54±88.68 vs. 879.92±133.18; P=0.018). The ADC mean and ADC minimum (ADCmin) values were found to be negatively correlated with the pathological T stages (r=−0.384, P=0.001; r=−0.416, P=0.001, respectively) as well as the largest tumor diameters (r=−0.340, P=0.005; r=−0.314, P=0.010, respectively) of rectal cancer. In addition, the pathological T stages correlated with all PET-related metabolic parameters, including mean standard uptake value (SUV), maximum SUV (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) (r=0.338, P=0.006; r=0.350, P=0.004; r=0.326, P=0.007; and r=0.472, P<0.001, respectively). Our results also identified associations between the ADCmin values and SUVmean, SUVmax, and TLG (r=−0.335, P=0.006; r=−0.343, P=0.005; and r=−0.343, P=0.005, respectively). However, there were no statistical correlations between the PET/MRI parameters and the immunohistochemical (IHC) results. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicated that the intratumoral heterogeneity measured by PET/MRI may reflect characteristics of the tumor microenvironment. Hence, PET/MRI parameters might be helpful in predicting tumor aggressiveness and prognosis.