Early Lung Cancer Treatment Response via Functional Diffusion Maps

Prospective diffusion-weighted imaging data from 9 non-small cell lung cancer patients with 13 total lesions. Imaging was performed before and at three time points after chemotherapy initiation to evaluate functional diffusion maps (fDMs) as a biomarker for treatment response. The study analyzed changes in apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values and the percentage of voxels with significantly increased or decreased ADCs.

Use Cases

• Analyze the correlation between the percentage of voxels with increased ADCs on fDMs and the reduction in tumor size on CT to validate fDMs as an early response biomarker.
• Model treatment response prediction using mean ADC increase values as a feature, segmented by patient lesion.
• Examine the spatial heterogeneity of treatment response across the 13 lesions using voxel-level ADC changes from functional diffusion maps.
• Perform repeated measures ANOVA on ADC changes across the four imaging time points (pre-treatment, 1, 2, and 6 weeks post-treatment).

Strengths

• Includes longitudinal imaging data from 9 patients across four specific time points relative to chemotherapy.
• Focuses on 13 distinct tumor lesions, enabling per-lesion analysis of treatment response.
• Data is prospectively collected under an approved ethics protocol with patient consent.
• Analysis links quantitative imaging biomarkers (ADC, fDM percentages) to a clinical standard (CT tumor size change).

Limitations

• Small sample size of 9 patients limits the statistical power and generalizability of findings.
• The dataset is from a single feasibility study, which may introduce site-specific biases in imaging protocols.
• Temporal coverage is limited to a short-term follow-up of six weeks post-chemotherapy initiation.

Provenance

Source

Dryad digital repository, authored by Carolin Reischauer.

Collection Method

Prospective clinical study with approved ethics committee protocol; imaging included respiratory-triggered diffusion-weighted sequences with three b-factors.

Time Range

Imaging performed within two weeks before and at one, two, and six weeks after chemotherapy initiation.

Freshness

Data was last updated in June 2020.

Geography

Study location not explicitly stated, but approved by a Cantonal Research Ethics Committee, suggesting a Swiss origin.