Three‐dimensional power Doppler angiography in endometrial cancer: correlation with tumor characteristics

Objective To assess the correlation between intratumoral vascularization using three‐dimensional power Doppler angiography (3D‐PDA) and several histological tumor characteristics in a series of patients with endometrial carcinoma. Methods Ninety‐nine women (mean age, 61.7 (range, 31–84) years) diagnosed as having endometrial cancer were assessed by transvaginal 3D‐PDA before surgical staging. Endometrial volume (EV) and 3D‐PDA vascular indices (vascularization index (VI), flow index (FI) and vascularization flow index (VFI)) were calculated using the Virtual Organ Computer‐aided AnaLysis (VOCAL™) method. All patients were surgically staged. Individual tumor features such as histological type, tumor grade, myometrial infiltration depth, lymph‐vascular space involvement, cervical involvement, lymph node metastases and tumor stage were considered for analysis. Multivariate logistic regression (MLR) analysis was used to determine which 3D‐PDA parameters were independently associated with each histological characteristic. Results MLR analysis showed that only EV and VI were independently associated with myometrial infiltration (EV: odds ratio (OR), 1.119 (95% CI, 1.025–1.221), P = 0.012; VI: OR, 1.127 (95% CI, 1.063–1.195), P = 0.001) and tumor stage (EV: OR, 1.103 (95% CI, 1.012–1.202), P = 0.025; VI: OR, 1.120 (95% CI, 1.057–1.187), P = 0.001), only VI was independently associated with tumor grade (OR, 1.056 (95% CI, 1.023–1.091), P = 0.001) and only EV was independently associated with lymph node metastases (OR, 1.086 (95% CI, 1.017–1.161), P = 0.001). Conclusion 3D‐PDA analysis of tumor vascularization in endometrial cancer correlates with some prognostic histological characteristics. Copyright © 2010 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.