ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Gastric and Esophageal Cancers
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1561256
Evaluation of Ki-67 Expression Levels in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carci noma Using Dual-energy CT Quantitative Parameters
Provisionally accepted
- Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fuzhou, China
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This study investigates the use of dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) quantita tive parameters to assess Ki-67 expression levels in esophageal squamous cell carcino ma (ESCC). A total of 57 ESCC patients who underwent dual-phase DECT scans were included. Key parameters measured were iodine concentration (IC), water concentrati on (WC), normalized iodine concentration (NIC), spectral Hounsfield unit curve slope (λHu), and effective atomic number (Zeff). Univariate and multivariate analyses ident ified factors associated with Ki-67 expression levels. Results showed that high Ki-67 e xpression correlated with significantly higher Zeff and IC values in the venous phase (VP) (P = 0.047 and P = 0.049, respectively; AUC = 0.67 for both), and lower WC in t he arterial phase (AP) (P = 0.021; AUC = 0.70). Multivariate analysis revealed that IC in VP and WC in AP were independent predictors of Ki-67 overexpression. The comb ination of these two parameters yielded an AUC of 0.78 for predicting Ki-67 overexpr ession, with 68.3% sensitivity, 87.5% specificity, and 73.7% accuracy. DECT paramet ers demonstrate potential for non-invasive Ki-67 status detection in ESCC, offering va luable insights for clinical diagnosis and prognosis.
Keywords: Quantitative parameters, Ki-67 expression, Dual-energy CT (DECT), esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, nomogram
Received: 15 Jan 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Huang, Lu, Chen, Ruan and Zheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dechun Zheng, Fujian Provincial Cancer Hospital, Fuzhou, China
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