- AI
- Molecular Imaging
- CT
- X-Ray
- Ultrasound
- MRI
- Facility Management
- Mammography
Whole-body PET/CT and 3T MR perform equally well for lung cancer staging
No clear winner has emerged in a head-to-head comparison of whole-body FDG-PET/CT and whole-body 3T MRI for non-small cell lung cancer staging. Unenhanced PET/CT proved better for detecting metastatic lymph nodes and soft-tissue involvement, while MR was more sensitive to the presence of brain and liver metastases.
No clear winner has emerged in a head-to-head comparison of whole-body FDG-PET/CT and whole-body 3T MRI for non-small cell lung cancer staging. Unenhanced PET/CT proved better for detecting metastatic lymph nodes and soft-tissue involvement, while MR was more sensitive to the presence of brain and liver metastases.
Although thoracic CT is considered the modality of choice for assessing the intrathoracic spread of lung disease, no consensus exists for which modality is best for evaluations of metastases.
Dr. Chin A. Yi and colleagues at the Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine in Seoul, Korea, examined findings from 165 NSCLC patients screened with whole-body PET/CT and whole-body 3T MRI.
None of the patients were thought to have metastatic disease on the basis of a physical exam, lab findings, and enhanced thoracic CT covering the thorax and upper abdomen.
No statistically significant advantage was identified for either PET/CT and whole-body MRI for tumor staging. Whole-body PET/CT and 3T MRI correctly staged 82% and 86% of the primary tumors, respectively.
For N-staging, the performance of the two modalities was again nearly equal. PET/CT correctly staged 70% of patients, and 3T MR correctly staged 68%.
Both PET/CT and whole-body MR showed 86% accuracy on a per-patient basis for detecting metastases. PET/CT was 48% sensitive and 96% specific for their presence. Three-T MRI was 52% sensitive and 94% specific.
Yi and colleagues found that PET/CT may have been more useful for metastasis detection in lymph nodes and soft tissue because of prominent FDG uptake in lesions in these areas.
Yi credited the higher field strength of 3T MRI and the use of a phased-array cardiac coil for thoracic imaging for improvements compared with earlier studies performed with 1.5T MRI. The better contrast of the MR images compared with PET/CT may have provided improved metastasis detection in the brain, liver, and kidneys, he said.
Results were published in the August issue of Radiology (2008;248(2):632-642).
For more information from the Diagnostic Imaging archives:
Whole-body MR with diffusion imaging matches PET/CT for lung cancer staging
Whole-body cancer staging in some requires frequent follow-up
Enhancing Lesions on Breast MRI: Can an Updated Kaiser Scoring Model Improve Detection?
September 26th 2024The addition of parameters such as patient age, MIP sign and associated imaging features to the Kaiser score demonstrated a 95.6 percent AUC for breast cancer detection of enhancing lesions on breast MRI in recently published research.
MRI or Ultrasound for Evaluating Pelvic Endometriosis?: Seven Takeaways from a New Literature Review
September 13th 2024While noting the strength of MRI for complete staging of disease and ultrasound’s ability to provide local disease characterization, the authors of a new literature review suggest the two modalities offer comparable results for diagnosing pelvic endometriosis.
New Meta-Analysis Examines MRI Assessment for Treatment of Esophageal Cancer
September 12th 2024Diffusion-weighted MRI provided pooled sensitivity and specificity rates of 82 percent and 81 percent respectively for gauging patient response to concurrent chemoradiotherapy for esophageal cancer, according to new meta-analysis.
