Combined 18F-FET PET and diffusion kurtosis MRI in post-treatment glioblastoma: differentiation of true progression from treatment related changes
Abstract Background Radiological differentiation of tumour progression (TPR) from treatment-related changes (TRC) in pre-treated glioblastoma is crucial. This study aimed to explore the diagnostic value of diffusion kurtosis MRI combined with information derived from O-(2-[ 18F]-fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine ( 18F-FET) PET for the differentiation of TPR from TRC in patients with pre-treated glioblastoma. Methods Thirty-two patients with histomolecularly defined and pre-treated glioblastoma suspected of having TPR were included in this retrospective study. Twenty-one patients were included in the TPR group, and 11 patients in the TRC group, as assessed by neuropathology or clinicoradiological follow-up. 3D regions-of-interest were generated based on increased 18F-FET uptake using a brain-to-tumour ratio of 1.6. Furthermore, diffusion MRI kurtosis maps were obtained from the same regions-of-interests using co-registered 18F-FET PET images, and an advanced histogram analysis of diffusion kurtosis map parameters was applied to generated 3D regions-of-interest. Diagnostic accuracy was analysed by receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis and combinations of PET and MRI parameters using multivariate logistic regression. Results Parameters derived from diffusion MRI kurtosis maps show high diagnostic accuracy, up to 88%, for differentiating between TPR and TRC. Logistic regression revealed that the highest diagnostic accuracy of 94% (area under the curve, 0.97; sensitivity, 94%; specificity, 91%) was achieved by combining the maximum tumour-to-brain ratio of 18F-FET uptake and diffusion MRI kurtosis metrics. Conclusions The combined use of 18F-FET PET and MRI diffusion kurtosis maps appears to be a promising approach to improve the differentiation of TPR from TRC in pre-treated glioblastoma and warrants further investigation.