Association of tumor grade, enhancement on multiphasic CT and microvessel density in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Purpose Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) comprises nearly 90% of all diagnosed RCC subtypes and has the worst prognosis and highest metastatic potential. The strongest prognostic factors for patients with ccRCC include histological subtype and Fuhrman grade, which are incorporated into prognostic models. Since ccRCC is a highly vascularized tumor, there may be differences in enhancement patterns on multidetector CT (MDCT) due to the hemodynamics and microvessel density (MVD) of the lesions. This may provide a noninvasive method to characterize incidentally detected low- and high-grade ccRCCs on MDCT. The purpose of our study was to determine the correlation between MDCT enhancement parameters, ccRCC MVD, and Fuhrman grade to determine its utility and value in assessing tumor vascularity and grade in vivo. Methods In this retrospective, HIPAA-compliant, institutional review board-approved study with waiver of informed consent, 127 consecutive patients with 89 low-grade (LG), and 43 high-grade (HG) ccRCCs underwent preoperative four-phase MDCT. A 3D volume of interest (VOI) was obtained for every tumor and absolute enhancement and the wash-in/wash-out of enhancement for each phase was assessed. Immunohistochemistry on resected specimens was used to quantify MVD. Linear regression and Pearson correlation were used to investigate the strength of the association between 3D VOI enhancement and MVD. Stepwise logistic regression analysis determined independent predictors of HG ccRCC. Cut-off values and odds Ratio (OR) with 95% CIs were reported. The clinical, radiomic, and pathologic features with the highest performance in the stepwise logistic regression analysis were evaluated using receiver operator characteristics (ROC) and area under the curve (AUC). Results Absolute enhancement in the nephrographic phase < 52.1 Hounsfield Units (HU) (HR 0.979, 95% CI 0.964-0.994, p value = 0.006), lesion size > 4.3 cm (HR 1.450, 95% CI 1.211-1.738, p value < 0.001), and an intratumoral MVD < 15% (HR 0.932, 95% CI 0.867-1.002, p value = 0.058) were independent predictors of HG ccRCC with an AUC of 0.818 (95% CI 0.725-0.911). HG ccRCCs had a significant association between 3D VOI enhancement and MVD in each post-contrast phase (r(2) = 0.238 to 0.455, p < 0.05). Conclusions Absolute enhancement of the entire lesion obtained from a 3D VOI in the nephrographic phase on preoperative MDCT can provide quantitative data that are a significant, independent predictor of a high-grade clear cell RCC and can be used to assess tumor vascularity and grade in vivo.