• Véronique Dedieu, Corinne Bailly, Catherine Vincent, Jean-Louis Achard, Guillaume Le Bouedec, Frédérique Penault-Llorca, Pierre Verrelle, and Dominique Vincensini.
• Medical Physics, Department of Centre J. Perrin, Clermont-Ferrand, France. veronique.dedieu@cjp.fr
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2008 Apr 1; 27 (4): 846-53.

PurposeTo improve the outcome prediction of uterine cervical carcinoma by measuring the vascular permeability (k(ep)) and the extracellular volume fraction (v(e)) of the tumor from Dynamic T(1)- IRM Relaxometry.Materials And MethodsTwenty-six patients with proven cervical carcinoma were divided into good outcome and poor outcome groups. Classic tumor prognostic factors, the longest diameter L and the volume V of the tumor, were measured from morphologic MR images. The tumor parameters k(ep) and v(e) were determined from the relaxometry time-curve acquired during the contrast uptake after a bolus intravenous injection of an extracellular contrast agent.ResultsAll "small" tumors (L<35 mm or V<11 cm(3)) were good outcome with 100% sensitivity but a rather low specificity (36% and 43% for L and V, respectively). With regard to the physiopathological parameter k(ep), "large" tumors (L >or= 35 mm) can also be classified as good outcome on the condition that k(ep) >or= 2.2 min(-1) with 100% sensitivity and 89% specificity. Regarding the extracellular volume fraction (v(e)), no significant difference was observed between the two groups.ConclusionMeasurement of the tumor vascular permeability might be useful to predict prognostic, to evaluate the treatment efficacy, and to adapt a proper therapy schedule.(c) 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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