Background: MRI group analysis is a powerful tool for elucidating pathological conditions in the brain that are challenging to reveal from single subject analysis. This research aimed to elucidate special distribution characteristics of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) within the brain with respect to molecular marker expression patterns.
Methods: MR images from 100 treatment-naive PCNSL patients were collected and registered onto averaged standard anatomical MRI (MNI152). Gadolinium-enhanced lesions were extracted, and a lesion frequency map was created. Lymphoma subtypes were classified as germinal center B (GCB) or non-GCB by immunohistochemistry in 90 patients.
Results: A PCNSL frequency map showed that these tumors tended to occur around the lateral, third and fourth ventricles. Moreover, GCB (27 cases) and non-GCB (63 cases) PCNSL frequency maps showed GCB lymphomas located at the upper tegmentum and cerebellum around the fourth ventricle, while non-GCB lymphomas tended to occupy the anterior fornix. These differences were significant and confirmed by the existence of voxels with P values <.05 (random permutation analysis with voxel-wise Fisher' exact test). This is the very first report to address phenotypical and spatial distributional differences between GCB and non-GCB PCNSL using an MR group analytical method.
Keywords: MRI; germinal center; primary central nervous system lymphoma.