The value of gadoxetic acid-enhanced and diffusion-weighted MRI for prediction of grading of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors

Abstract

Background

Parenchyma-preserving resection for the treatment of benign pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) has been tried, and preoperative prediction of benign pancreatic NET is important. Recently, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) of abdomen magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been used to characterize benign and malignant tumors and DWI might be helpful in prediction of benign pancreatic NETs.

Purpose

To evaluate the value of gadoxetic acid-enhanced MRI and DWI in predicting benign pancreatic NETs for determination of parenchyma-preserving resection.

Material and Methods

Our ethics committee approved this study with a waiver of informed consent given its retrospective design. We searched radiology and pathology databases from November 2010 to July 2012 to identify patients who underwent surgery for pancreatic NETs (<4 cm). Twenty patients in the benign group and 14 patients in the non-benign group were included in this study. Two radiologists analyzed the morphologic features, signal intensity on MR images including DWI (b = 800), and dynamic enhancement pattern of the tumors with consensus. The tumor-to-parenchyma ratio and tumor apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) were quantitatively assessed.

Results

The benign pancreatic NETs were more often round (7/20, 35%) or ovoid (13/20, 65%) in shape and less hypovascular on the arterial phase (3/20, 15%) than were the non-benign pancreatic NETs (1/14, 7.1% and 5/14, 35.8%; 7/14, 50% respectively; P < 0.05). Main pancreatic duct dilatation by tumors was demonstrated only in non-benign pancreatic NETs (4/14, 28.4%; P = 0.021). ADC values and ratios were significantly different between benign pancreatic NETs (mean, 1.48 × 10⁻³mm²/sec, 1.11 ± 0.25, each) and non-benign pancreatic NETs (mean, 1.04 × 10⁻³mm²/sec, 0.74 ± 0.13, each) (P < 0.01). Other qualitative and quantitative analyses between benign and non-benign pancreatic NETs were not significantly different (P > 0.05).

Conclusion

Abdominal MRI with DWI may be useful for differentiating benign pancreatic NETs from non-benign pancreatic NETs, which might be helpful for determination of parenchyma-preserving resection.