ABSTRACT

Objective

Preoperative characterization of malignant and benign ovarian masses is important for informing patients about possible surgical approaches. This study aimed to determine the diagnostic performance of apparent diffusion coefficient values in differentiating between benign and malignant ovarian tumors.

Material and Methods

A total of 142 patients who underwent surgery for ovarian masses were retrospectively analyzed. Eighty-two patients who underwent diffusion-weighted imaging and had a confirmed histopathological diagnosis were included in the study. Ovarian masses were classified as benign or malignant, and epithelial or non-epithelial. The ADC values of the masses and cerebrospinal fluid and the ratio of mass/ CSF-ADC were measured and compared between the groups.

Results

There were 94 masses of 82 patients included in the study and 14.6% (n= 12/82) of the patients had bilateral ovarian tumors. The masses were confirmed to be benign in 73 (77.7%) patients and malignant in 21 (22.3%). The average age of the patients with malignant masses was significantly higher compared to the benign group (p= 0.002). No notable distinction was observed between the ADC values of malignant and benign ovarian masses in either the mass-ADC (p= 0.894) or the mass/CSF-ADC values (p= 0.826). However, when the epithelial and non-epithelial ovarian tumors were compared, the epithelial group had higher values than the non-epithelial group in both the mass ADC (p< 0.001) and the mass/CSF-ADC (p< 0.001).

Conclusion

While the ADC values of ovarian masses may not be adequately discriminatory between benign and malignant tumors, they do offer valuable insights for distinguishing between those of epithelial and non-epithelial nature.