title: Pretreatment perfusion CT and CT volumetry in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck region.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Perfusion computed tomography imaging (PCT) is a robust, reproducible, widely accessible non-invasive method. The objective of our study was to assess whether prospectively collected pretreatment PCT parameters and volumetric measurements of locoregionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma (SCCA) of the oral cavity, oropharynx and hypopharynx could predict the response to concomitant chemoradiotherapy with cisplatin Methods: Pretreatment contrast enhanced PCT was performed in 30 patients. Radiologic response criteria (RECIST) were used to evaluate tumor response. The correlation and predictive value of baseline PCT parameters and tumor volume were examined by using the Student's t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Baseline tumor volume, blood volume (BV) and blood flow (BF) were significantly higher in responders than in non-responders. Permeability surface (PS) did not show any significant difference between the two groups. Pretreatment tumor volume correlated with baseline BV (r=-0.4; p=0.01). Pretreatment tumor volume had 100% sensitivity and specificity (p=0.0001) and BV and BF also showed satisfactory sensitivity and specificity (100% and 65%, p=0.0002; 78% and 80.2%, p=0.01, respectively) for prediction of tumor response to concomitant chemoradiotherapy with cisplatin.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Baseline BV, BF and tumor volume values were significantly different between responders and non-responders and could predict response to concomitant chemoradiotherapy with cisplatin in locoregionally advanced SCCA.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Radiology, University Medical Center Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Katarina Surlan
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Popovic
authors.forename: Snezana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lukic
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Popovic
mesh_terms: D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy; D059248:Chemoradiotherapy; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D047368:Tumor Burden