Early evaluation of targeted therapy effectiveness in non-small cell lung cancer by dynamic contrast-enhanced CT

Purpose To study the feasibility and clinical value of dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) computed tomography (CT) for early evaluation of targeted therapy efficacy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods We measured tumor diameter, peak height (PH), time to peak (TP), tumor mass–aortic peak height ratio (M/A), and blood perfusion (BP) in 20 patients with advanced NSCLC using DCE-CT before and 7 days after treatment. Therapy efficacy was assessed with conventional CT 4–6 weeks post-treatment. Results Patients were grouped into those with partial response (PR), stable disease (SD), and progressive disease (PD) according to the therapy efficacy assessment at 4–6 weeks post-treatment. The PR group primary tumor diameter ( P = 0.0007) and BP ( P = 0.0225) were reduced at 7 days post-treatment; the SD group DCE-CT value changes were not significant. The PD group M/A ( P = 0.0443) and BP ( P = 0.0268) were increased 7 days post-treatment. The BP decrease group had significantly longer progression-free survival than the BP increase group (median, 54 vs. 6 weeks). Conclusion DCE-CT can evaluate targeted therapy efficacy at 7 days post-treatment. Decreased primary tumor diameter and BP indicate tumor sensitivity to therapy; increased BP with unchanged tumor diameter suggests the tumor is not sensitive to therapy. Reduced BP suggests treatment effectiveness.