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Article

MRI‑based diffusion weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging grading of clear cell renal cell carcinoma using a deep learning classifier

  • Authors:
    • Wenjing Zheng
    • Xin Luo
    • Yangyingqiu Liu
    • Chang Xu
    • Kaiwen Liu
    • Demin Kong
    • Peng Sun
    • Yuxuan Li
    • Xinying Shi
    • Ziyan Dong
    • Jinfeng Cao
  • View Affiliations / Copyright

    Affiliations: Department of Medical Imaging, Binzhou Medical University, Yantai, Shandong 264003, P.R. China, Department of Radiology, Zibo Central Hospital, Zibo, Shandong 255020, P.R. China, Department of Radiology, Binzhou Medical University Hospital, Binzhou, Shandong 256603, P.R. China, Department of Medical Imaging, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, Shandong 261053, P.R. China
  • Article Number: 500
    |
    Published online on: August 27, 2025
       https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2025.15246
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Abstract

Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is a malignant tumor, originating from the renal epithelium, and accounts for ~85% of RCC cases. The present study aimed to validate the efficacy of an MRI deep learning (DL) model to preoperatively predict the pathological grading of ccRCC. Therefore, a DL algorithm was constructed and trained using diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) sequence images. Subsequently, the apparent diffusion coefficient maps from DWI, as well as axial kurtosis (Ka), fractional anisotropy, radial kurtosis (Kr), mean kurtosis (MK) and mean diffusivity maps from DKI were calculated. The VGG‑16 model was selected as the backbone architecture to validate the DL model. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 79 patients with ccRCC, including 40 low‑ and 39 high‑grade cases, were prospectively evaluated. Among the different image parameters, mean MK achieved the highest accuracy, with a precision of 81.48%, F1‑score of 76.04%, recall of 74.08% and accuracy of 76.04%, followed by Kr, with values of 75.51, 75.36, 75.42 and 75.36%, respectively. Ka had precision, recall, F1‑score and accuracy values of 81.39, 71.81, 68.31 and 71.81%, respectively. Overall, the results of the current study revealed that the established DL model, as a non‑invasive algorithm based on MRI sequences, could accurately predict the pathological grading of ccRCC. Therefore, these findings highlighted the potential of this method to guide individualized treatment decisions for patients with ccRCC.
View Figures

Figure 1

Pathway for patient recruitment.
ccRCC, clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Figure 2

Flow chart for MRI images. ADC,
apparent diffusion coefficient; DKI, diffusion kurtosis imaging;
DWI, diffusion weighted imaging; FA, fractional anisotropy; Ka,
axial kurtosis; Kr, radial kurtosis; MD, mean diffusivity; MK, mean
kurtosis.

Figure 3

Overview of data processing. (A) Data
collection, (B) image preprocessing, and (C) model training and
test. ADC, apparent diffusion coefficient; DKI, diffusion kurtosis
imaging; DWI, diffusion weighted imaging; FA, fractional
anisotropy; Ka, axial kurtosis; Kr, radial kurtosis; MD, mean
diffusivity; MK, mean kurtosis.

Figure 4

Detailed model architecture. ADC,
apparent diffusion coefficient; DKI, diffusion kurtosis imaging;
DWI, diffusion weighted imaging; FA, fractional anisotropy; Ka,
axial kurtosis; Kr, radial kurtosis; MD, mean diffusivity; MK, mean
kurtosis; Conv, convolution; Conv2d, 2D convolution; MaxPool2d, 2D
max-pooling.
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Copy and paste a formatted citation
Spandidos Publications style
Zheng W, Luo X, Liu Y, Xu C, Liu K, Kong D, Sun P, Li Y, Shi X, Dong Z, Dong Z, et al: MRI‑based diffusion weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging grading of clear cell renal cell carcinoma using a deep learning classifier. Oncol Lett 30: 500, 2025.
APA
Zheng, W., Luo, X., Liu, Y., Xu, C., Liu, K., Kong, D. ... Cao, J. (2025). MRI‑based diffusion weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging grading of clear cell renal cell carcinoma using a deep learning classifier. Oncology Letters, 30, 500. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2025.15246
MLA
Zheng, W., Luo, X., Liu, Y., Xu, C., Liu, K., Kong, D., Sun, P., Li, Y., Shi, X., Dong, Z., Cao, J."MRI‑based diffusion weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging grading of clear cell renal cell carcinoma using a deep learning classifier". Oncology Letters 30.5 (2025): 500.
Chicago
Zheng, W., Luo, X., Liu, Y., Xu, C., Liu, K., Kong, D., Sun, P., Li, Y., Shi, X., Dong, Z., Cao, J."MRI‑based diffusion weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging grading of clear cell renal cell carcinoma using a deep learning classifier". Oncology Letters 30, no. 5 (2025): 500. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2025.15246
Copy and paste a formatted citation
x
Spandidos Publications style
Zheng W, Luo X, Liu Y, Xu C, Liu K, Kong D, Sun P, Li Y, Shi X, Dong Z, Dong Z, et al: MRI‑based diffusion weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging grading of clear cell renal cell carcinoma using a deep learning classifier. Oncol Lett 30: 500, 2025.
APA
Zheng, W., Luo, X., Liu, Y., Xu, C., Liu, K., Kong, D. ... Cao, J. (2025). MRI‑based diffusion weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging grading of clear cell renal cell carcinoma using a deep learning classifier. Oncology Letters, 30, 500. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2025.15246
MLA
Zheng, W., Luo, X., Liu, Y., Xu, C., Liu, K., Kong, D., Sun, P., Li, Y., Shi, X., Dong, Z., Cao, J."MRI‑based diffusion weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging grading of clear cell renal cell carcinoma using a deep learning classifier". Oncology Letters 30.5 (2025): 500.
Chicago
Zheng, W., Luo, X., Liu, Y., Xu, C., Liu, K., Kong, D., Sun, P., Li, Y., Shi, X., Dong, Z., Cao, J."MRI‑based diffusion weighted imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging grading of clear cell renal cell carcinoma using a deep learning classifier". Oncology Letters 30, no. 5 (2025): 500. https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2025.15246
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