Radiotherapy Response Assessment of Multiple Myeloma: A Dual-Energy CT Approach With Virtual Non-Calcium Images

Background: Life expectancy of patients with multiple myeloma (MM) has increased over the past decades, underlining the importance of local tumor control and avoidance of dose-dependent side effects of palliative radiotherapy (RT). Virtual noncalcium (VNCa) imaging from dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) has been suggested to estimate cellularity and metabolic activity of lytic bone lesions (LBLs) in MM.

Objective: To explore the feasibility of RT response monitoring with DECT-derived VNCa attenuation measurements in MM.

Methods: Thirty-three patients with 85 LBLs that had been irradiated and 85 paired non-irradiated LBLs from the same patients were included in this retrospective study. Irradiated and non-irradiated LBLs were measured by circular regions of interest (ROIs) on conventional and VNCa images in a total of 216 follow-up measurements (48 before and 168 after RT). Follow-ups were rated as therapy response, stable disease, or local progression according to the MD Anderson criteria. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to discriminate irradiated . non-irradiated and locally progressive . stable/responsive LBLs using absolute attenuation post-irradiation and percentage attenuation change for patients with pre-irradiation DECT, if available.

Results: Attenuation of LBLs decreased after RT depending on the time that had passed after irradiation [absolute thresholds for identification of irradiated LBLs 30.5-70.0 HU [best area under the curve [AUC] 0.75 (0.59-0.91)] and -77.0 to -22.5 HU [best AUC 0.85 (0.65-1.00)]/-50% and -117% to -167% proportional change of attenuation on conventional and VNCa images, respectively]. VNCa CT was significantly superior for identification of RT effects in LBLs with higher calcium content [best VNCa AUC 0.96 (0.91-1.00), best conventional CT AUC 0.64 (0.45-0.83)]. Thresholds for early identification of local irradiation failure were >20.5 HU on conventional CT [AUC 0.78 (0.68-0.88)] and >-27 HU on VNCa CT [AUC 0.83 (0.70-0.96)].

Conclusion: Therapy response of LBLs after RT can be monitored by VNCa imaging based on regular myeloma scans, which yields potential for optimizing the lesion-specific radiation dose for local tumor control. Decreasing attenuation indicates RT response, while above threshold attenuation of LBLs precedes local irradiation failure.