Diffusion-relaxation correlation spectroscopic imaging for evaluating response to neoadjuvant therapy in locally advanced rectal cancer

Different treatment strategies should be applied to locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) patients achieving different response after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT). The purpose of this study was to determine the diagnostic performance of diffusion-relaxation correlation spectroscopic imaging (DR-CSI) in discriminating the pathological complete response (pCR) to nCRT in LARC. Compared to non-pCR group, pCR group showed significantly decreased average DR-CSI VD. ROC curve analysis indicated that the VD has better diagnostic performance in distinguishing pCR from non-pCR patients than traditional ADC and T2 value.