Pilot implementation of vendor-provided on-scanner gradient nonlinearity correction for breast tumor ADC measures in a prospective trial

Motivation: Improve accuracy of ADC measurement by correcting spatial nonuniformity of diffusion weighting caused by gradient nonlinearity (GNL) using novel vendor implemented on-scanner tools Goal(s): Evaluate GNL correction of breast tumor ADC in a treatment response study Approach: Implement on-scanner GNL correction, evaluate uncorrected and corrected tumor ADCs, evaluate GNL bias and ADC changes pre-treatment and post one cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Results: Preliminary results from this study indicate adequate performance of the vendor implemented GNL correction of ADC in breast DWI assessment of response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Impact: This pilot study demonstrates vendor-implemented GNL-correction (GNC) of spatially dependent b-value bias can dramatically simplify the process of obtaining more accurate ADC measures, which can improve robustness of ADC as a biomarker for treatment response.