Textural Differences in Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Between Low- and High-Stage Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this article is to evaluate differences in texture measures on apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps between low- and high-stage clear cell renal cell carcinomas (RCCs). MATERIALS AND METHODS. In this retrospective study, 61 patients with clear cell RCC at pathologic examination and who underwent preoperative MRI with diffusion-weighted imaging were included. Clear cell RCCs were clinically staged on review of preoperative MRI by a board-certified radiologist blinded to the pathologic findings. Whole lesions were segmented on ADC maps by two readers independently, from which first-order texture features (i.e., mean and skewness) and second-order texture features (i.e., cooccurrence matrix measures) were calculated. Texture metrics were compared between low- and high-stage clear cell RCC. RESULTS. In 61 patients, there were 62 clear cell RCCs (33 low stage [stages I and II] and 29 high stage [stages III and IV]) at pathologic examination. Staging accuracy of qualitative interpretation was 100% for low-stage lesions and 37.9% (11/29) for high-stage lesions. There was no statistically significant difference in mean ADC between high- and low-stage clear cell RCCs (1.77 x 10(-3) vs 1.80 x 10(-3) mm(2)/ s; p = 0.7). However, high-stage clear cell RCCs were larger (6.96 +/- 2.93 vs 3.49 +/- 1.57 cm; p < 0.0001) and had statistically significantly (p = 0.0001) higher ADC skewness (0.02 +/- 0.33 vs -0.52 +/- 0.65) and cooccurrence matrix correlation (0.64 +/- 0.11 vs 0.49 +/- 0.13). Multivariate logistic regression identified size, skewness, and cooccurrence matrix correlation as significant independent predictors of high stage (AUC = 0.92). Interreader correlation in texture metrics ranged from 0.82 to 0.89. CONCLUSION. First- and second-order ADC texture metrics differ between low- and high-stage clear cell RCCs. A model that includes size and ADC texture measures may help to stage clear cell RCCs noninvasively.