Investigators have validated a multiphasic MRI-based algorithm called the Kidney MR Score (KMRS) for differentiating malignant from benign renal masses, according to a poster presentation at the 2022 International Kidney Cancer Symposium: North America held in Austin, Texas.
Chuthaporn Surawech, MD, and colleagues at the David Geffin School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles, California, assessed the diagnostic performance and the interreader agreement of the KMRS in a study of 202 solid renal masses from 178 patients (116 men) with a mean age of 62 years. Abdominal radiologists and abdominal radiology fellows independently interpreted findings from the patients. They assigned a KMRS to each lesion on a 5-point Likert scale to indicate the probability of benignity, malignancy, and ccRCC. They were blinded to clinical findings.
For distinguishing malignant from benign lesions, a KMRS of 4 or higher had a median sensitivity and specificity of 87.5% and 69.5%, respectively, and an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.79. For diagnosing ccRCC, a KMRS of 5 had a median sensitivity and specificity of 72.3% and 87.0%, respectively, and an AUC of 0.82 for diagnosing ccRCC. For diagnosing benign lesions, a KMRS of 2 or less had a median sensitivity and specificity of 33.4% and 95.6%, respectively.
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“If further validated and refined, it may prove useful in clinical practice especially if augmented by AI techniques to confidently characterize incidentally detected solid renal masses, supplemented by other imaging techniques and biopsy to accurately triage patients,” the authors concluded.
Reference
Surawech C, Miao Q, Suvannarerg V, et al. Differentiation clear cell carcinoma from other common malignant and benign renal masses on multiphasic MRI: A Likert based multireader analysis. Presented at: International Kidney Cancer Symposium: North America, November 4-5, 2022, Austin, Texas. Abstract 11.
