Preoperative Staging Assessment Research Articles

Endometrial cancer: the role of MRI quantitative assessment in preoperative staging and risk stratification.

New methods to reduce subjectivity in preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) staging of endometrial cancer are needed. To investigate the role of MRI quantitative assessment in staging and risk stratification of endometrial cancer. Preoperative T2-weighted (T2W) images and diffusion-weighted imaging of 42 patients were analyzed retrospectively by two radiologists. Tumor area ratio (TAR) and tumor volume ratio (TVRseg) were calculated by semi-automatic segmentation of the tumor and uterus on T2W imaging and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). TVR was also calculated by the 3D metric method (TVRmetric). Mean ADCtumor was calculated. The patients were allocated to risk groups regarding the stage, grade, and lymphovascular invasion (LVI) status. TAR, TVRmetric, T2W TVRseg, and ADC TVRseg showed a significant difference between the superficial and deep myometrial invasion groups (P < 0.001). All of these parameters showed a good diagnostic performance for detecting deep myometrial invasion (AUC>0.82), the highest accuracy rate (85%) was found with T2W TVRseg. LVI was significantly associated with TAR (P = 0.002) and T2W TVRseg (P = 0.014), while the cervical invasion was associated with TAR (P = 0.03). ADCtumor was significantly lower in high-grade tumors (P = 0.002). There was a significant difference in ADCtumor (P = 0.002), TAR (P = 0.004), and T2W TVRseg (P = 0.038) between the low- and high-risk groups. AUC of TAR and T2W TVRseg for detecting high-risk groups were 0.80 and 0.77, respectively, while AUC of ADCtumor for the low-risk group was 0.75. MRI quantitative assessments such as TAR, TVR, and ADCtumor may improve the accuracy of preoperative staging and can help in risk stratification of endometrial cancer.

Diagnostic value of 18F-FDG PET/MRI for staging in patients with endometrial cancer

BackgroundPreoperative accurate assessment of endometrial cancer can assist in the planning of additional surgical options, and in predicting the prognosis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic potential of non-contrast PET/MRI with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) for assessment in preoperative staging of endometrial cancer.MethodsThirty-six patients with biopsy-proven endometrial cancer underwent preoperative 18F-FDG PET/MRI, contrast-enhanced CT (ceCT) and pelvic dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (ceMRI) for initial staging. The diagnostic performance of 18F-FDG PET/MRI and ceMRI for assessing the extent of the primary tumor (T stage), and 18F-FDG PET/MRI and ceCT for assessing nodal (N stage) and distant (M stage) metastasis, was evaluated by two experienced readers. Histopathological and follow-up imaging results were used as the gold standard. The McNemar test was employed for statistical analysis.ResultsAccuracy for T status was 77.8 and 75.0% for 18F-FDG PET/MRI and ceMRI, respectively. Patient-based accuracy for detecting regional nodal and distant metastasis was 91.3 and 81.8% for 18F-FDG PET/MRI, and 87.0 and 81.8% for ceCT. None of these parameters was statistically significant (p > 0.05). Lesion-based sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for detecting regional nodal metastasis were 100, 96.9 and 97.0% for 18F-FDG PET/MRI, and 14.3, 97.6 and 93.3% for ceCT; sensitivity was statistically significant (p < 0.05).ConclusionsNon-contrast 18F-FDG PET/MRI, which combines the individual advantages of PET and MRI, offers a high diagnostic value equivalent to that of ceMRI for assessment of the primary tumor, and equivalent to that of ceCT for the assessment of nodal and distant metastatic staging, in patients with endometrial cancer. These findings suggest that 18F-FDG PET/MRI might provide an alternative diagnostic strategy to conventional imaging modalities in the preoperative staging of endometrial cancer.

Hilar cholangiocarcinoma: radiological assessment of resectability

A pre-operative study of 31 patients with proximal cholangiocarcinoma was carried out with ultrasonography (US), duplex sonography (DS), computed tomography (CT), percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography (PTC), endoscopic retrograde cholangiography (ERC) and angiography. US, DS and PTC are the most effective techniques for pre-operative staging assessment of proximal cholangiocarcinoma. A tumour was visualised by US in 89% of cases, and the extent of extraductal tumour invasion was correctly established in 64%. Lobar segmental tumour extension was correctly documented in 80% of cases; however, the exact definition of tumour extension required the use of PTC. Vascular patency was correctly visualised by DS in 85% of cases. Altogether, tumour invasion was correctly documented in 68% in cases. In the event of radiologically localised tumour extension, radiological interpretation was correct in 64% of cases. The extent of tumour infiltration was radiologically underestimated in 36% of cases, especially in documenting lymph node metastases, infiltration of the hepato-duodenal ligament and segmental liver invasion.

Improving Diagnostic Accuracy of Cervical Metastases With Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Reply

I am writing to respond to Dr Portilla's letter to the editors concerning our published article entitled "Improving Diagnostic Accuracy of Cervical Metastases With Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging." In our results we stated that computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging were found to be superior over physical examination in sensitivity values, false-positive values, false-negative values, and overall efficiency predictive values. However, these values did not achieve statistical significance. We then summarized a recent up-to-date literature review from 1984 to present that showed five out of six institutions were in agreement with our findings. Two of these, Friedman et al¹and Close et al²were statistically significant. At this point in time we feel that this provoking and controversial issue is unfolding to support the side of utilizing either computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging in the preoperative staging assessment. However, continued evaluation in