ADC histogram analysis of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cell levels in meningioma

Neurosurg Rev. 2025 Jan 10;48(1):34. doi: 10.1007/s10143-025-03197-7.

Abstract

To investigate the value of preoperative MRI features and ADC histogram analysis for evaluating tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells in meningiomas. In this single-center cross-sectional study, we conducted a retrospective analysis of clinical, imaging, and pathological data from 84 patients with meningioma and performed immunohistochemical staining to quantitatively evaluate CD8+ T cells. Using X-Tile software, we divided the patients into high-and low-CD8+ T cells groups based on cut-off values. Furthermore, we compared the clinical and MRI features between the two groups and assessed the predictive value of significant parameters by plotting ROC curves. Additionally, Spearman's analysis was used to examine the association between ADC histogram parameters and CD8+ T cells. The level of tumor-infiltrating CD8+ T cells was found to have a negative correlation with recurrence in patients with meningiomas (r=-0.235, p = 0.031). No statistically significant differences were found in clinical and conventional MRI features between the two groups (all p > 0.05). Conversely, among the ADC histogram parameters, the coefficient of variation (CV), Perc.01, Perc.05, Perc.10, and Perc.25 showed statistically significant differences between the two groups (all p < 0.05) and combined ADC histogram parameters had the highest AUC (0.791; 95%CI (0.689-0.872)). Additionally, we observed a positive correlation between Perc.01, Perc.05, Perc.10 and CD8+ T cells (p < 0.05), the CV and variance was negatively correlated with the levels of CD8+ T cells (p < 0.05). ADC histogram analysis can be used as an imaging tool to preoperatively assess CD8+ T cells in patients with meningioma, and found a certain correlation between them.

ADC histogram analysis can be used as an auxiliary diagnostic tool to assess the CD8+ T cells in meningiomas before surgery and can also provide theoretical basis for the selection and formulation of preoperative clinical treatment plans for patients with meningioma.

Keywords: CD8+ T cells; Histogram analysis; Magnetic resonance imaging; Meningioma; Tumor microenvironment.