Sanjeev Chawla1, Sungheon Kim2,
Laurie A. Loevner1, Harry Quon3, Wei T. Hwang4,
G Weinstein5, A Chalian1, Harish Poptani1
1Radiology, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, PA, United States; 2Radiology, New York University,
New York, NY, United States; 3Radiation Oncology, University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; 4Biostatistics,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; 5Otorhinolaryngology,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
We
evaluated the potential of pretreatment volume transfer constant (Ktrans)
from DCE-MRI in predicting disease specific survival in patients with
squamous cell carcinomas of head and neck. Sixty-six patients underwent
chemo-radiation therapy and were followed up clinically (median follow up
time for the surviving patients was 24.0 months). Pretreatment median Ktrans was used as
threshold value to separate patients into two groups (above and below the
threshold value). The survival for patients with higher pre-treatment Ktrans
was significantly prolonged compared to patients with lower Ktrans value
indicating that Ktrans can be used to predict survival outcome in these
patients.