Robustness of Normalized ADC Values of Prostate Cancer Against Different Imaging Conditions and Calculation Methods

Harald Busse¹, Josephin Otto¹, Gregor Thrmer¹, Nikita Garnov¹, Lars-Christian Horn², Martin Reiss-Zimmermann¹, Thomas Kahn¹, Michael Moche¹

Diffusion-weighted imaging has potential roles in the management of prostate cancer and apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) could potentially distinguish aggressive from indolent carcinoma. Wider validation, however, will rely on robust quantitative diffusion parameters. This work demonstrates intraindividually that the additional use of an endorectal coil and different b-value data introduce highly significant differences in the absolute ADC values in both tumor and mirror healthy tissue regions. Differences in the ratio of tumor over healthy tissue ADC averages were not significant and make normalized ADC a more robust parameter for the quantification of diffusion abnormalities in the prostate.