WEDNESDAY, May 6, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Whole-body diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) shows good agreement with 18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) for assessing tumor response to induction chemotherapy in children and young adults with lymphoma or sarcoma, according to a study published online May 5 in Radiology.
Ashok J. Theruvath, M.D., from Stanford University in California, and colleagues compared tumor therapy response with whole-body DW MRI and FDG PET in a study involving 56 children and young adults with lymphoma or sarcoma. Participants underwent simultaneous whole-body DW MRI and FDG PET/MRI before and after induction chemotherapy.
The researchers found good agreement between treatment response assessments with whole-body DW MRI and FDG PET/MRI after induction chemotherapy (α = 0.88). Similar clinical response prediction was seen according to maximum standardized uptake value (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 100 percent) and minimum apparent diffusion coefficients (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 98 percent). For DW MRI, sensitivity and specificity were 96 and 100 percent, respectively, compared with 100 and 100 percent for FDG PET. Chemotherapy-induced changes in tumor metabolism preceded changes in proton diffusion in eight of 56 patients who underwent imaging after induction chemotherapy in the early posttreatment phase.
"Whole-body diffusion-weighted MRI can help assess therapy response of pediatric tumors, especially eight to 12 weeks after start of treatment in patients with lymphoma and sarcoma," the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries.
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