OC28.04: Transvaginal ultrasound in comparison to MRI for the evaluation of early stages of cervical cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Early stages of cervical cancer are highly curable and new less radical treatment option for early stages have been recently proposed. Essential measure for accurate selection of the treatment modality is the pretreatment evaluation of the tumor extent. Currently MRI is considered to be the method of choice for estimation of tumor size and invasion of cervical stroma. The aim of our study was to determine the reliability of transvaginal ultrasound (TVUS) in comparison to MRI and to evaluate the ability of TVUS to detect correctly lesions less than 20 mm in largest diameter. Methods:73patients were evaluated in early stages of cervical cancer IA2-IB1, TVUS and MRI wasperformed separately measuring tumor volume in 3 planes. Results: Mean largest tumor diameter detected by TVUS was 21.56 mm, by MRI 26.54 mm; correlation at the level of p < 0.01 showed high statistical significance. Sensitivity of TVUS to differentiate correctly between tumors larger or smaller than 20 mm in the largest diameter was 77.1% with specificity 94.4%. Tumors in TVUS labeled as, ‘‘less than 20 mm in largest diameter’’ proved to be such in histology in 97.1% of cases in comparison to MRI that correctly labeled tumors in 74.2%. Conclusion: TVUS appears to be a method that correlates well with the results of MRI in early stages of cervical cancer. Thus selecting IB1 tumors less than 20 mm in largest diameter for less radical treatment could be reliable with TVUS.