Added Value of Amide Proton Transfer Weighted MRI in the Evaluation of treatment Response to Neoadjuvant Therapy of Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer

Motivation: The existing evaluation system remains inadequate for assessing complete response(CR) to neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) for locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). There is a pressing need for more precise imaging evaluation methods. Goal(s): To investigate the added value of Amide Proton Transfer weighted (APTw) MRI in the evaluation of CR to NAT in patients with LARC. Approach: Diagnosis performance of conventional assessment and APTw-added combined assessment was assessed by receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis. Results: Diagnostic efficiency in the evaluation of CR was significantly improved when APTw imaging was added to conventional evaluation, with AUC improved from 0.706 to 0.969Impact: Superimposing the advantage of noninvasiveness, APTw imaging may have great application value in solving the clinical problem of diagnosing CR to NAT and provide additional valuable information for clinical decision making.