A Correlation Study Between DCE-MRI Quantitative Parameters And Immunohistochemical Labeling Indices In Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Objective: To evaluate the expression of immunohistochemical labeling indices which reflect tumor hypoxia?HIF-1??, tumor angiogenesis?VEGF, MVD? and tumor proliferation?Ki67? in nasopharyngeal carcinoma?NPC?, and explore the correlation between above pathological indices. The most important is to study the correlation between the dynamic enhanced magnetic resonance?DCE-MRI? quantitative parameters and pathological indicators in NPC.Materials and Methods: Continuous seventy-four patients?2012.09-2014.04, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital? with NPC received DCE-MRI and nasopharyngeal biopsy before treatment. We performed MRI examinations on a 3.0 tesla?Achieva TX, Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands? whole-body MR scanner system equipped with parallel radio frequency transmission using a 16-channel neurovascular coil. We investigated quantitative kinetic parameters(K^trans, K_ep,Ve and Vp) by using DCE-Tool based on extended Tofts' model. HIF-1?, VEGF expression, MVD and Ki67 expression were detected by immunohistochemistry?IHC? staining. Finally, the correlations were analyzed by Spearman's rank coefficient analysis. A p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: We found that the positive expression rate of HIF-1? was 61.8%, VEGF was 77.9%, Ki67 and MVD were 100% in these NPC cases. HIF-1? positive group was significantly correlated with VEGF positive expression and MVD count respectively??=0.514, ?=0.571; P < 0.001?. MVD was statistically correlated with the expression of VEGF positive group??=0.378?. K^trans was positively associated with HIF-1? positive expression, VEGF positive expression and MVD respectively??=0.600, ?=0.534, ?=0.668; P<0.05?. K_ep was positively associated with HIF-1? positive expression, VEGF positive expression and MVD count respectively??=0.485, ?=0.365, ?=0.441; P<0.05?. There were significantly positive correlations between vp and the VEGF expression, MVD count respectively??=0.362, ?=0.366;P<0.05?. However, there were no significant relationship between the Ki67 expression and any DCE-MRI quantitative parameters in our study.Conclusion: Tumor hypoxia was associated with tumor angiogenesis. DCE-MRI quantitative parameters were significantly related to tumor hypoxia and tumor angiogensis. DCE-MRI is a potential method to assess tumor hypoxia and tumor angiogenesis noninvasively.