Comparison of ferumoxytol- and gadolinium chelate-enhanced MRI for assessment of sarcomas in children and adolescents

Objectives: We compared the value of ferumoxytol (FMX)- and gadolinium (Gd)-enhanced MRI for assessment of sarcomas in paediatric/adolescent patients and hypothesised that tumour size and morphological features can be equally well assessed with both protocols.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of paediatric/adolescent patients with newly diagnosed bone or soft tissue sarcomas and both pre-treatment FMX- and Gd-MRI scans, which were maximal 4 weeks apart. Both protocols included T1- and T2-weighted sequences. One reader assessed tumour volumes, signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) of the primary tumour and adjacent tissues and contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR) of FMX- and Gd-MRI scans. Additionally, four readers scored FMX- and Gd-MRI scans according to 15 diagnostic parameters, using a Likert scale. The results were pooled across readers and compared between FMX- and Gd-MRI scans. Statistical methods included multivariate analyses with different models.

Results: Twenty-two patients met inclusion criteria (16 males, 6 females; mean age 15.3 ± 5.0). Tumour volume was not significantly different on T1-LAVA (p = 0.721), T1-SE (p = 0.290) and T2-FSE (p = 0.609) sequences. Compared to Gd-MRI, FMX-MRI demonstrated significantly lower tumour SNR on T1-LAVA (p < 0.001), equal tumour SNR on T1-SE (p = 0.104) and T2-FSE (p = 0.305), significantly higher tumour-to-marrow CNR (p < 0.001) on T2-FSE as well as significantly higher tumour-to-liver (p = 0.021) and tumour-to-vessel (p = 0.003) CNR on T1-LAVA images. Peritumoural and marrow oedema enhanced significantly more on Gd-MRI compared to FMX-MRI (p < 0.001/p = 0.002, respectively). Tumour thrombi and neurovascular bundle involvement were assessed with a significantly higher confidence on FMX-MRI (both p < 0.001).

Conclusions: FMX-MRI provides equal assessment of the extent of bone and soft tissue sarcomas compared to Gd-MRI with improved tumour delineation and improved evaluation of neurovascular involvement and tumour thrombi. Therefore, FMX-MRI is a possible alternative to Gd-MRI for tumour staging in paediatric/adolescent sarcoma patients.

Key points: • Ferumoxytol can be used as an alterative to gadolinium chelates for MRI staging ofpaediatric sarcomas. • Ferumoxytol-enhanced MRI provides equal assessment of tumour size and other diagnostic parameters compared to gadolinium chelate-enhanced MRI. • Ferumoxytol-enhanced MRI provides improved delineation of sarcomas from bone marrow, liver and vessels compared to gadolinium chelate-enhanced MRI.