Purpose To evaluate fitting quality and repeatability of four mathematical models for diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) during tumor progression in mouse xenograft model of prostate cancer.

Methods Human prostate cancer cells (PC-3) were implanted subcutaneously in right hind limbs of 11 immunodeficient mice. Tumor growth was followed by weekly DWI examinations using a 7T MR scanner. Additional DWI examination was performed after repositioning following the fourth DWI examination to evaluate short term repeatability. DWI was performed using 15 and 12 b-values in the ranges of 0-500 and 0-2000 s/mm(2), respectively. Corrected Akaike information criteria and F-ratio were used to evaluate fitting quality of each model (mono-exponential, stretched exponential, kurtosis, and bi-exponential).

Results Significant changes were observed in DWI data during the tumor growth, indicated by ADC(m), ADC(s), and ADC(k). Similar results were obtained using low as well as high b-values. No marked changes in model preference were present between the weeks 1-4. The parameters of the mono-exponential, stretched exponential, and kurtosis models had smaller confidence interval and coefficient of repeatability values than the parameters of the bi-exponential model.

Conclusion Stretched exponential and kurtosis models showed better fit to DWI data than the mono-exponential model and presented with good repeatability.