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Whole-tumour apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) histogram analysis to identify MYCN-amplification in neuroblastomas: preliminary results

  • Paediatric
  • Published:
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Abstract

Objectives

To determine the role of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) histogram analysis in the identification of MYCN-amplification status in neuroblastomas.

Methods

We retrospectively evaluated imaging records from 62 patients with neuroblastomas (median age: 15 months (interquartile range (IQR): 7–24 months); 38 females) who underwent magnetic resonance imaging at our institution before the initiation of any therapy or biopsy. Fourteen patients had MYCN-amplified (MYCNA) neuroblastoma. Histogram parameters of ADC maps from the entire tumour was obtained from the baseline images and the normalised images. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the absolute and normalised histogram parameters amongst neuroblastomas with and without MYCN-amplification. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and area under the curves (AUC) were generated for the statistically significant histogram parameters. Cut-offs obtained from the ROC curves were evaluated on an external validation set (n-15, MYCNA-6, F-7, age 24 months (10–60)). A logistic regression model was trained to predict MYCNA by combining statistically significant histogram parameters and was evaluated on the validation set.

Results

MYCN-amplified neuroblastomas had statistically significant higher maximum ADC and lower minimum ADC than non-amplified neuroblastomas. They also demonstrated higher entropy, variance, energy, and lower uniformity than non-amplified neoplasms (p > 0.05). Energy, entropy, and maximum ADC had AUC of 0.85, 0.79, and 0.82, respectively.

Conclusions

Whole tumour ADC histogram analysis of neuroblastomas can differentiate between tumours with and without MYCN-amplification. These parameters can help identify areas for targeted biopsies or can be used to predict subtypes of these high-risk tumours before biopsy results are available.

Key Points

• MYCN-amplification significantly affects treatment decisions in neuroblastomas.

• MYCN-amplified neuroblastomas had significantly different ADC histogram metrics as compared to tumours without amplification.

• ADC histogram metrics can be used to predict MYCN-amplification status based on imaging.

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Abbreviations

ADC:

Apparent diffusion coefficient

AUC:

Area under the curve

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

MYCNA:

MYCN-amplified

ROC:

Receiver operating characteristics curve

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The authors state that this work has not received any funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Roberts Center for Pediatric Research, Office 3122, 3rd Floor, 2716 South Street, 3401 Civic Center Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Adarsh Ghosh, Ensar Yekeler, Deepa Dalal, Alexandria Holroyd & Lisa States

  2. Department of Radiology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Lisa States

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  1. Adarsh Ghosh
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  2. Ensar Yekeler
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  3. Deepa Dalal
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  4. Alexandria Holroyd
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  5. Lisa States
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Correspondence to Adarsh Ghosh.

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The scientific guarantor of this publication is Dr Lisa States.

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The authors of this manuscript declare no relationships with any companies, whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article.

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Ghosh, A., Yekeler, E., Dalal, D. et al. Whole-tumour apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) histogram analysis to identify MYCN-amplification in neuroblastomas: preliminary results. Eur Radiol 32, 8453–8462 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-022-08750-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-022-08750-2

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