The aim of this paper was to assess the associations between prostate cancer aggressiveness and histogram-derived apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) parameters and determine which ADC parameters may help distinguish among stromal hyperplasia (SH), glandular hyperplasia (GH), and low-grade, intermediate-grade, and high-grade prostate cancers. The mean, median, minimum, maximum, and 10th and 25th percentile ADC values were determined from the ADC histogram and compared among two benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) groups and three Gleason score (GS) groups. Seventy lesions were identified in 58 patients who had undergone proctectomy. Thirty-nine lesions were prostate cancers (GS 6 = 7 lesions, GS 7 = 19 lesions, GS 8 = 11 lesions, GS 9 = 2 lesions), and thirty-one lesions were BPH (SH = 15 lesions, GH = 16 lesions). There were statistically significant differences in 10th percentile and 25th percentile ADC values when comparing GS 6 to GS 7 (p < 0.05). The 10th percentile ADC values yielded the highest area under the curve (AUC). Tenth and 25th percentile ADCs can be used to more accurately differentiate lesions with GS 6 from those with GS 7 than other ADC parameters. Our data indicate that the major challenge with ADC mapping is to differentiate between SH and GS 6, and SH and GS 7.
Keywords: benign prostate hyperplasia; glandular hyperplasia; histogram-derived ADC parameters; prostate cancer; stromal hyperplasia.