Value of blood oxygenation level-dependent MRI for predicting clinical outcomes in uterine cervical cancer treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy

Objectives To investigate the value of blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) MRI as a predictor of clinical outcomes in cervical cancer patients treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Method Enrolled 92 patients with stage IB2–IVB cervical cancer who received CCRT underwent 3-T BOLD MRI before treatment. The R2* value (rate of spin dephasing, s −1 ) was measured in the tumor. Cox regression analysis was used to evaluate the associations of imaging and clinical parameters with progression-free survival (PFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS). Inter-reader reliability for the R2* measurements was evaluated using an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results Tumor R2* values were significantly different between patients with and without disease progression ( p