Objective: To evaluate a role of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values measured from diffusion-weighted imaging we investigated its association with clinicopathological tumor characteristics of bladder cancer.
Materials and methods: Diffusion-weighted MRI at 1.5 Tesla using b-values of 0, 1000 s/mm(2) was taken before transurethral resection by 114 bladder urothelial tumor patients. ADC value was measured and its relationship with pathological factors including T stage, tumor grade, infiltration style (INF) and lymphatic invasion (ly) was analyzed.
Results: Median ADC value was significantly lower in Grade 3 than in Grade 1 (P < 0.001) or in Grade 2 (P = 0.002), in INFb than in INFa (P = 0.004), in INFc than in INFa (P < 0.001), in ly1 than in ly0 (P < 0.001) and lower in T2≦ than in T1≧ (P < 0.001), respectively. Receiver operating curve demonstrated the accuracy of detecting muscle invasive bladder cancer or ly+ by using area under curve (AUC), showing 0.758 and 0.748.
Conclusion: ADC value is likely to serve as a useful biomarker showing clinicopathological characterictics of bladder cancer.
Keywords: Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC); Bladder cancer; Infiltration style (INF); Lymphatic invasion (ly).