Analysis of parametric histogram from dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI: application in evaluating brain tumor response to radiotherapy

Dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI (DCE MRI) has been used to study tumor response to treatment for many years. In this study, the modified full width at half‐maximum (mFWHM), calculated from the wash‐in slope histogram, is proposed as a parameter for the evaluation of changes in tumor heterogeneity which respond to radiotherapy. Twenty‐five patients with brain tumors were evaluated and divided into the nonresponder group ( n = 11) and the responder group ( n = 14) according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST). All selected tumors were evaluated by mFWHM ratios of post‐ to pre‐therapy (the ratio was defined as the therapeutic mFWHM ratio, TMR). The changes in kurtosis of the histograms and the averaged K trans within a tumor were also calculated for comparison. The receiver operating characteristic analysis and Kaplan–Meier curves were used to examine the diagnosis ability. The TMR values were significantly higher in nonresponders than in responders ( p < 0.001). When compared with the other two parameters, the proposed method also demonstrated better sensitivity and specificity. When adopting the TMR for the estimation of prognosis after therapy, there was a significant difference between the population survival curves. In conclusion, the derived mFWHM reflects tumor heterogeneity, and the ability to depict patient survival probability from TMR corresponds well with that from RECIST. The results reveal that, in brain tumors, progression may be exhibited not only by tumor size, but also by tumor heterogeneity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.