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Differentiation of Reactive and Tumor Metastatic Lymph Nodes with Diffusion-weighted and SPIO-Enhanced MRI

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Abstract

Objectives

Determination of lymphatic metastasis is of great importance for both treatment planning and patient prognosis. We aim to distinguish tumor metastatic lymph nodes (TLNs) and reactive lymph nodes (RLNs) with diffusion-weighted and superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO)-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Materials and Methods

Ipsilateral popliteal lymph node metastasis or lymphadenitis model was established by hock injection of either luciferase-expressing 4T1 murine breast cancer cells or complete Freund's adjuvant in male BALB/c mice. At different time points after inoculation, bioluminescence imaging and T2-weighted, diffusion-weighted, and SPIO-enhanced MRI were performed. Imaging findings were confirmed by histopathological staining.

Results

Size enlargement was observed in both TLNs and RLNs. At day 28, TLNs showed strong bioluminescence signal and bigger size than RLNs (p < 0.01). At early stages up to day 21, both TLNs and RLNs appeared homogeneous on diffusion-weighted imaging. At day 28, TLNs showed heterogeneous apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map with significantly higher average ADC value of 0.41 ± 0.03 × 10−3mm2/s than that of RLNs (0.34 ± 0.02 × 10−3mm2/s; p < 0.05). On SPIO-enhanced MRI, both TLNs and RLNs showed distinct T2 signal reduction at day 21 after inoculation. At day 28, TLNs demonstrated partial uptake of the iron oxide particles, which was confirmed by Prussian blue staining.

Conclusions

Both diffusion-weighted and SPIO-enhanced MRI can distinguish tumor metastatic lymph nodes from reactive lymph nodes. However, neither method is able to detect tumor metastasis to the draining lymph nodes at early stages.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the International Cooperative Program of the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (81028009).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Molecular Imaging and Translational Medicine, School of Public Health, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361000, China

    Fan Zhang & Lei Zhu

  2. Laboratory of Molecular Imaging and Nanomedicine (LOMIN), National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, 20892, USA

    Fan Zhang, Lei Zhu, Xinglu Huang, Gang Niu & Xiaoyuan Chen

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  1. Fan Zhang
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  2. Lei Zhu
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  3. Xinglu Huang
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  4. Gang Niu
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Correspondence to Gang Niu or Xiaoyuan Chen.

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Zhang, F., Zhu, L., Huang, X. et al. Differentiation of Reactive and Tumor Metastatic Lymph Nodes with Diffusion-weighted and SPIO-Enhanced MRI. Mol Imaging Biol 15, 40–47 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-012-0562-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-012-0562-2

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