Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. Jan 28, 2016; 8(1): 21-49
Published online Jan 28, 2016. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v8.i1.21
Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in cancer: Reported apparent diffusion coefficients, in-vitro and in-vivo reproducibility
Maysam M Jafar, Arman Parsai, Marc E Miquel
Maysam M Jafar, Arman Parsai, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London E1 2AD, United Kingdom
Maysam M Jafar, Marc E Miquel, Clinical Physics, Barts Health NHS Trust, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE, United Kingdom
Arman Parsai, Radiology, Barts Health NHS Trust, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE, United Kingdom
Marc E Miquel, William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London EC1M 6BQ, United Kingdom
Author contributions: All authors equally contributed to this paper with conception and design of the study, literature review and analysis, drafting and critical revision and editing, and final approval of the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflicts of interest for this paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Maysam M Jafar, PhD, Clinical Physics, Barts Health NHS Trust, West Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE, United Kingdom. maysam.jafar@nhs.net
Telephone: +44-203-7658803 Fax: +44-203-4655785
Received: August 21, 2015
Peer-review started: August 24, 2015
First decision: September 30, 2015
Revised: November 10, 2015
Accepted: December 7, 2015
Article in press: December 8, 2015
Published online: January 28, 2016
Abstract

There is considerable disparity in the published apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values across different anatomies. Institutions are increasingly assessing repeatability and reproducibility of the derived ADC to determine its variation, which could potentially be used as an indicator in determining tumour aggressiveness or assessing tumour response. In this manuscript, a review of selected articles published to date in healthy extra-cranial body diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging is presented, detailing reported ADC values and discussing their variation across different studies. In total 115 studies were selected including 28 for liver parenchyma, 15 for kidney (renal parenchyma), 14 for spleen, 13 for pancreatic body, 6 for gallbladder, 13 for prostate, 13 for uterus (endometrium, myometrium, cervix) and 13 for fibroglandular breast tissue. Median ADC values in selected studies were found to be 1.28 × 10-3 mm2/s in liver, 1.94 × 10-3 mm2/s in kidney, 1.60 × 10-3 mm2/s in pancreatic body, 0.85 × 10-3 mm2/s in spleen, 2.73 × 10-3 mm2/s in gallbladder, 1.64 × 10-3 mm2/s and 1.31 × 10-3 mm2/s in prostate peripheral zone and central gland respectively (combined median value of 1.54×10-3 mm2/s), 1.44 × 10-3 mm2/s in endometrium, 1.53 × 10-3 mm2/s in myometrium, 1.71 × 10-3 mm2/s in cervix and 1.92 × 10-3 mm2/s in breast. In addition, six phantom studies and thirteen in vivo studies were summarized to compare repeatability and reproducibility of the measured ADC. All selected phantom studies demonstrated lower intra-scanner and inter-scanner variation compared to in vivo studies. Based on the findings of this manuscript, it is recommended that protocols need to be optimised for the body part studied and that system-induced variability must be established using a standardized phantom in any clinical study. Reproducibility of the measured ADC must also be assessed in a volunteer population, as variations are far more significant in vivo compared with phantom studies.

Keywords: Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging, Apparent diffusion coefficient reproducibility, Apparent diffusion coefficient, Cancer imaging, Extra-cranial organs

Core tip: Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging was highlighted as a potential cancer imaging biomarker by a team of experts in a report published in 2009. We review the variability of published diffusion values in the major extra-cranial organs and focus on the validation literature, both in vivo and in vitro. A total of 115 studies were selected including for liver parenchyma, kidney, pancreatic body, spleen, gallbladder, prostate, uterus (endometrium, myometrium, cervix) and breast. We also look in detail at the published repeatability and reproducibility studies, both in vivo and in phantoms. A series of recommendations based on our findings are given at the end of this review.