Background: Single slice dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) appears to provide perfusion data about sarcomas in vivo that correlate with tumor necrosis on equivalent pathological sections. However, sarcomas are heterogeneous and therefore single slice DCE-MRI may not correlate with total tumor necrosis.
Purpose: To determine whether changes in pharmacokinetic modeling of DCE-MRI, during chemotherapy for primary bone sarcomas correlated with histological measures of total tumor necrosis.
Material and Methods: Twelve patients with appendicular primary bone sarcomas were included in the study. Each patient had DCE-MRI before, and after completion, of pre-operative chemotherapy. The mean arterial slope (A), endothelial permeability coefficient (Ktrans), and extravascular extracellular volume (Ve) were derived from each data set using a modified two compartment pharmacokinetic model. Total tumor necrosis rates were compared with changes in A, Ktrans, and Ve.
Results: Six patients had total tumor necrosis of ≥90% and six had a measure of <90%. The median percentage changes in A, Ktrans, and Ve for the ≥90% necrosis group were −52.5% (−83 to 6), −66% (−82 to 26), and 23.5% (−26 to 40), respectively. For the <90% necrosis group, A = − 35% (−75 to 132), Ktrans= − 53 (−66 to 149) and Ve= − 14.5% (−42 to 40). One patient with >90% necrosis had increases in all three measures. Comparison of the two groups generated P-values of 0.699 for A, 0.18 for Ktrans, and 0.31 for Ve.
Conclusion: There was no statistically significant correlation between changes in pharmacokinetic perfusion parameters and total tumor necrosis. When using single slice DCE-MRI heterogeneous histology of primary bone sarcomas and repair mediated angiogenesis might both be confounding factors.
