Pretreatment arterial spin labelling combined with depth of invasion predict disease progression in nonmetastatic NPC after IMRT

Motivation: Arterial spin labeling (ASL) showed the promising value in diagnosis and early treatment outcome prediction in head and neck. Whether ASL combined with tumor invasion depth could help predicting disease progression needs further investigate. Goal(s): To explore the value of CBF derived from ASL and depth of invasion in predicting 3-year disease progression in NPC. Approach: Prospective inclusion of consecutive patients with regular follow-up. Selection of appropriate statistical methods to construct and compare models. Results: CBF and tumor invasion depth are significantly correlated with progression-free survival, and both of them could help predicting 3-year disease progression. Impact: ASL and tumor infiltration depth shown for the first time to predict disease progression in NPC, which could help with clinical treatment decisions.