The ability of ADC measurements in the assessment of patients with stage I endometrial carcinoma based on three risk categories

BACKGROUND: Better selection of patients with intermediate and high-risk stage I endometrial carcinoma (EC) for lymphadenectomy has an important effect on the prognosis. PURPOSE: To investigate the role of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements in the assessment of stage I EC patients based on three risk categories. MATERIAL AND METHODS: ) were performed, and ADC values were calculated. Sixty-eight stage I EC patients were divided into three groups: low-risk EC (group 1); intermediate-risk EC (group 2); and high-risk EC (group 3). The remaining 12 EC patients were in stages II and III. Intraclass coefficient, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and receiver operating characteristics were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: /s) were 0.851 ± 0.131, 0.734 ± 0.108, and 0.710 ± 0.108 for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Significant statistical differences were achieved for the three groups ( P = 0.0005). The mean ADC values of group 1 were significantly lower than those in group 2 + 3 (0.725 ± 0.106; P = 0.0001). For the prediction of groups 2 + 3, the area under the curve of 0.786 and the cut-off value of ≤ 0.742 were identified, with a sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 66.67%, 84.09%, and 73.53%, respectively. CONCLUSION: ADC measurements may have the potential to select intermediate-risk and high-risk stage I EC patients for lymphadenectomy.