Background: Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value is an important quantitative parameter in the research of cervical cancer, affected by some factors.
Purpose: To investigate the effect of pathological type and menstrual status on the ADC value of cervical cancer.
Material and methods: A total of 352 individuals with pathologically confirmed cervical cancer between January 2015 to December 2017 were retrospectively enrolled in this study, including 317 cases with squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) and 35 cases with adenocarcinomas (AC); 177 patients were non-menopausal and 175 were menopausal. All patients underwent a routine 3.0-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) examination using b-values of 0, 800, and 1000 s/mm2. Three parameters including mean ADC (ADCmean), maximum ADC (ADCmax), and minimum ADC (ADCmin) of cervical cancer lesions were measured and retrospectively analyzed. Independent samples t-test was used to compare the difference of ADC values in different menstrual status and pathological types.
Results: In all menopausal and non-menopausal patients, the ADCmean and ADCmin values of SCC were lower than those of AC (P<0.05), the ADCmax of two pathological types showed no statistical difference (P > 0.05). In menopausal patients, the ADCmean, ADCmax, and ADCmin values of SCC were not statistically different compared with those of AC (P > 0.05). The ADCmean, ADCmax, and ADCmin values of different pathological types cervical cancers in non-menopausal patients were all higher than those in menopausal patients (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The ADC values of the cervical cancers were different in different pathological types and were also affected by menstrual status.
Keywords: Cervical cancer; apparent diffusion coefficient; magnetic resonance imaging; menopause; pathology.