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Cervical lymphadenopathy: can the histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient help to differentiate between lymphoma and squamous cell carcinoma in patients with unknown clinical primary tumor?

  • HEAD, NECK AND DENTAL RADIOLOGY
  • Published:
La radiologia medica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

To retrospectively evaluate the value of whole-lesion histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps in differentiating between lymphoma and metastatic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of unknown clinical primary in neck nodes.

Methods

A total of 39 patients, 20 affected by lymphoma and 19 affected by metastatic non-nasopharyngeal SCC, were included in this retrospective study. All patients underwent MR imaging with a 1.5 T scanner system, including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with three different b values (b = 0, 500 and 800 s/mm2). The entire tumor volume was manually delineated on the ADC maps, using the T2-weighted images and DWIs with b = 800 s/mm2 as a guide to the lesion location. The Mann–Whitney rank-sum test for independent samples was performed to compare the histogram parameters of patients with lymphoma and SCC.

Results

The SCCs showed significantly higher median ADC (ADCmedian) and mean ADC (ADCmean) values, compared to lymphomas (p < 0.001), while they exhibited lower kurtosis and skewness without reaching significance (p = 0.066 and 0.148, respectively). The ADCmean and ADCmedian had the best discriminative powers for differentiating lymphoma and SCC, with an area under the curve of 87% and 85%, respectively. The optimal cutoff values for ADCmean and ADCmedian as predictors for lymphoma were ≤ 0.83 × 10−3 mm2/s and ≤ 0.73 × 10−3 mm2/s, respectively.

Conclusions

The whole-lesion ADC histogram analysis of cervical lymphadenopathy may help to discriminate lymphomas from non-nasopharyngeal SCC in patients with unknown clinical primary tumor.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Michele Farella, Elisa Tommasini, Pierfrancesco Rinaldi for their continued technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging Department, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144, Rome, Italy

    Antonello Vidiri & Ramy Kayal

  2. Medical Physics Laboratory, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144, Rome, Italy

    Silvia Minosse & Simona Marzi

  3. Department of Radiology, F. Policlinico Gemelli - IRCCS, Largo Agostino Gemelli 8, 00168, Rome, Italy

    Francesca Piludu & Giorgio Carlino

  4. Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144, Rome, Italy

    Raul Pellini & Giovanni Cristalli

  5. Department of Hematology, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144, Rome, Italy

    Daniela Renzi

  6. Department of Pathology, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144, Rome, Italy

    Renato Covello

  7. Via Pieve di Cadore 30, 00135, Rome, Italy

    Antonello Vidiri

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  1. Antonello Vidiri
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  2. Silvia Minosse
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Correspondence to Antonello Vidiri.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study, formal consent is not required.

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Vidiri, A., Minosse, S., Piludu, F. et al. Cervical lymphadenopathy: can the histogram analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient help to differentiate between lymphoma and squamous cell carcinoma in patients with unknown clinical primary tumor?. Radiol med 124, 19–26 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-018-0940-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-018-0940-1

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