Tumor margin infiltration in soft tissue sarcomas: Prediction using 3T MRI texture analysis

Purpose To determine the value of 3 Tesla (T) MRI texture analysis for predicting tumor margin infiltration in soft tissue sarcomas. Materials and Methods Thirty-one patients who underwent 3T MRI and had a pathologically confirmed diagnosis of soft tissue sarcoma were included in this study. Margin infiltration on pathology was used as the gold standard. Texture analysis of soft tissue sarcomas was performed on axial T1-weighted images (WI) and T2WI, fat-suppressed contrast-enhanced (CE) T1WI, diffusion-weighted images (DWI) with b-value of 800 s/mm2, and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) was mapped. Quantitative parameters were compared between sarcomas with infiltrative margins and those with circumscribed margins. Results Among the 31 patients with soft tissue sarcomas, 23 showed tumor margin infiltration on pathology. There were significant differences in kurtosis with the spatial scaling factor (SSF) of 0 and 6 on T1WI, kurtosis (SSF, 0) on CE-T1WI, skewness (SSF, 0) on DWI, and skewness (SSF, 2, 4) on ADC between sarcomas with infiltrative margins and those with circumscribed margins (p ≤ 0.046). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve based on MR texture features for identification of infiltrative tumor margins was 0.951 (p < 0.001). Conclusion MR texture analysis is reliable and accurate for the prediction of infiltrative margins of soft tissue sarcomas.