The feasibility of a radial turbo-spin-echo T2 mapping for preoperative prediction of the histological grade and lymphovascular space invasion of cervical squamous cell carcinoma

Purpose The study aimed to analyze the feasibility of a radial turbo-spin-echo (TSE) T2 mapping to differentiate the histological grades and lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI) of cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) in comparison with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI). Methods A total of 58 patients with CSCC and 40 healthy volunteers underwent T2 mapping and DWI before therapy. The T2 and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values were calculated using different tumor characteristics. The differences, efficacies and correlations between parameters were determined. Results The T2 and ADC values were significantly different between CSCC and normal cervical stroma (both p < 0.05). Poorly differentiated (G3) tumor showed lower T2 and ADC values than well differentiated (G1) and moderately differentiated (G2) tumor (all p < 0.05). The T2 values were significantly lower in LVSI-positive CSCC than LVSI-negative CSCC (p < 0.05). No significant difference was found in ADC values for LVSI status (p = 0.561). The area under the ROC (AUC) for T2 and ADC values to distinguish G1/G2 and G3 tumor were 0.741 and 0.763, respectively. The AUC for T2 and ADC values to distinguish LVSI-positive and LVSI-negative CSCC were 0.877 and 0.537, respectively. The T2 and ADC values were negatively correlated with the tumor grades (r = −0.402 and r = −0.339, respectively). Conclusions Radial TSE T2 mapping is feasible for CSCC. Similar to ADC values, quantitative T2 values could serve as a noninvasive biomarker to predict histological grades preoperatively. Moreover, T2 values could determine the presence of LVSI better than ADC values.