The role of dynamic, contrast-enhanced MRI in differentiating lung tumor subtypes

The aim was to correlate dynamic magnetic resonance imaging perfusion parameters of pulmonary tumors with histological tumor classification. Eighty-six patients with lung cancer were examined. A differentiation of non-small cell lung cancer vs. small cell lung cancer was possible with the parameters tumor necrosis, maximum contrast upslope, and the time until the maximum contrast upslope was reached. The beginning of a relevant contrast uptake, the mean time to peak and the time until the maximum contrast upslope was reached allowed a differentiation between squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma.