Does chemical shift imaging offer a biomarker for the diagnosis and assessment of disease severity in multiple myeloma?

摘要

Multiple myeloma(MM) isa hematologicalmalignancy characterized by theclonalexpansion of plasmacells within the bone marrow(BM). The pattern ofBMinfiltration onmagneticresonanceimaging (MRI) has been reported to have prognosticsignificancein newly diagnosed patients with symptomatic disease. [1–3] Forexample, Moulopoulosetal [1] reported that the median overallsurvival of patients with newly diagnosed MMwas significantly shorter ifthey had a diffuse MRI pattern compared with variegated and normal patterns. In patients with smolderingMM, diffuse marrowinfiltration onMRI wasalso associated with increased risk for progression. [4] Although an infiltration pattern onMRI has been demonstrated asareliable biomarker for predicting prognosis, [1,2] it has not been included in any criteriafor MMbecausetheassessment of nonfocaltumor infiltration onMRIcan besubjective. In addition, variegated or diffuse patterns may be normal variations or indicatea physiological process such as hematopoietic BM. Thereis thereforea need foran objective MRI biomarker for quantifying tumor massand for increasing the specificity ofabnormalsignalinBM.