Assessment of Prostatic Ductal Volume Using Combined Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI and Diffusion MRI

S. M. Noworolski, A. P. Chen, D. B. Vigneron, J. Kurhanewicz The University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States Synopsis Prostatic ductal volume decreases with cancer grade. To assess whether Gadolinium-DTPA can reach the ducts, MRI, 3D-MRSI, dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and diffusion were performed on nine prostate cancer patients. Using peak enhancement and ADC, the ductal tissues (normal peripheral zone and glandular BPH) were well separated from the less-ductal tissues (central gland and stromal BPH). This indicates that Gd-DTPA does not reach the ducts; DCE-MRI doesn't seem to reflect the intact ductal volume whereas ADC seems to. Cancer spanned a range of peak enhancement and ADC values. Combining DCE-MRI and ADC yields ductal volume and may help characterize prostate cancers.