Preoperative Prediction of Pathologic Response to Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy in Patients With Esophageal Cancer Using 18F-FDG PET/CT and DW-MRI: a prospective multicenter study

Alicia S Borggreve, Lucas Goense, Peter S N van Rossum, Sophie E Heethuis, Richard van Hillegersberg, Jan J W Lagendijk, Marnix G E H Lam, Astrid L H M W van Lier, Stella Mook, Jelle P Ruurda, Marco van Vulpen, Francine E M Voncken, Berthe M P Aleman, Annemarieke Bartels-Rutten, Jingfei Ma, Penny Fang, Benjamin C Musall, Steven H Lin, Gert J Meijer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

PURPOSE: Accurate preoperative prediction of pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) in patients with esophageal cancer could enable omission of esophagectomy in patients with a pathologic complete response (pCR). This study aimed to evaluate the individual and combined value of 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography with integrated computed tomography ( 18F-FDG PET/CT) and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) during and after nCRT to predict pathologic response in patients with esophageal cancer.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: In this multicenter prospective study, patients scheduled to receive nCRT followed by esophagectomy for esophageal cancer underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT and DW-MRI scanning before the start of nCRT, during nCRT, and before esophagectomy. Response to nCRT was based on histopathologic evaluation of the resection specimen. Relative changes in 18F-FDG PET/CT and DW-MRI parameters were compared between patients with pCR and non-pCR groups. Multivariable ridge regression analyses with bootstrapped c-indices were performed to evaluate the individual and combined value of 18F-FDG PET/CT and DW-MRI.

RESULTS: pCR was found in 26.1% of 69 patients. Relative changes in 18F-FDG PET/CT parameters after nCRT (Δ standardized uptake value [SUV] mean,postP = .016, and Δ total lesion glycolysis postP = .024), as well as changes in DW-MRI parameters during nCRT (Δ apparent diffusion coefficient [ADC] duringP = .008) were significantly different between pCR and non-pCR. A c-statistic of 0.84 was obtained for a model with ΔADC during, ΔSUV mean,post, and histology in classifying patients as pCR (versus 0.82 for ΔADC during and 0.79 for ΔSUV mean,post alone).

CONCLUSIONS: Changes on 18F-FDG PET/CT after nCRT and early changes on DW-MRI during nCRT can help identify pCR to nCRT in esophageal cancer. Moreover, 18F-FDG PET/CT and DW-MRI might be of complementary value in the assessment of pCR.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)998-1009
Number of pages12
JournalInternational Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics
Volume106
Issue number5
Early online date25 Jan 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2020

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