Differentiating papillary type I RCC from clear cell RCC and oncocytoma: application of whole-lesion volumetric ADC measurement

Purpose To determine whether objective volumetric whole-lesion apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) distribution analysis improves upon the capabilities of conventional subjective small region-of-interest (ROI) ADC measurements for prediction of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) subtype. Methods This IRB-approved study retrospectively enrolled 55 patients (152 tumors). Diffusion-weighted imaging DWI was acquired at b values of 0, 250, and 800 s/mm 2 on a 1.5T system (Aera, Siemens Healthcare). Whole-lesion measurements were performed by a research fellow and reviewed by a fellowship-trained radiologist. Mean, median, skewness, kurtosis, and every 5th percentile ADCs were determined from the whole-lesion histogram. Linear mixed models that accounted for within-subject correlation of lesions were used to compare ADCs among RCC subtypes. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis with optimal cutoff points from the Youden index was used to test the ability of ADCs to differentiate clear cell RCC (ccRCC), papillary RCC (pRCC), and oncocytoma subtypes. Results Whole-lesion ADC values were significantly different between pRCC and ccRCC, and between pRCC and oncocytoma, demonstrating strong ability to differentiate subtypes across the quantiles (both P