MRI prognostic factors of tongue cancer: potential predictors of cervical lymph nodes metastases
Article Category: Research Article
Published Online: Mar 03, 2019
Page range: 49 - 56
Received: Oct 20, 2018
Accepted: Jan 15, 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/raon-2019-0012
© 2019 Mohamed A.F. Mourad, Mahmoud M. Higazi, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.
Background
This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of three MR imaging parameters, which are tumour thickness, para-lingual distance and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value for prediction of cervical lymph nodes metastasis in cancer tongue patients.
Patients and methods
Fifty patients with proved cancer tongue by histopathological examination underwent MRI examination. T1 and T2- weighted MRI, diffusion-weighted images and post-contrast T1 fat suppression sequences were used.
Results
The patients were classified according to lymph nodes involvement as seen by MRI into two groups. Significant differences between positive and negative nodes groups were observed regarding tumour thickness and para-lingual distance (p-values = 0.008 and 0.003 respectively). ROC curve analyses revealed cut-off values >13.8 mm and ≤ 3.3 mm for tumour thickness and para-lingual distance respectively for prediction of nodes involvement. No significant differences between patients with and without cervical lymph nodes metastasis were found regarding corresponding ADC value of the tumour (p-value = 0.518).
Conclusions
Para-lingual distance and tumour thickness are factors that could influence pre-operative judgment and prognosis of tongue cancer patients. ADC value of the tumour itself seem not to be a reliable index of cancer progression to regional lymph nodes.