Journal
EUROPEAN RADIOLOGY
Volume 23, Issue 7, Pages 1753-1765Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00330-013-2773-6
Keywords
Magnetic resonance imaging; Oesophagus; Cancer; Staging; Radiotherapy; Imaging
Ask authors/readers for more resources
To outline the current role and future potential of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the management of oesophageal cancer regarding T-staging, N-staging, tumour delineation for radiotherapy (RT) and treatment response assessment. PubMed, Embase and the Cochrane library were searched identifying all articles related to the use of MRI in oesophageal cancer. Data regarding the value of MRI in the areas of interest were extracted in order to calculate sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and accuracy for group-related outcome measures. Although historically poor, recent improvements in MRI protocols and techniques have resulted in better imaging quality and the valuable addition of functional information. In recent studies, similar or even better results have been achieved using optimised MRI compared with other imaging strategies for T- and N-staging. No studies clearly report on the role of MRI in oesophageal tumour delineation and real-time guidance for RT so far. Recent pilot studies showed that functional MRI might be capable of predicting pathological response to treatment and patient prognosis. In the near future MRI has the potential to bring improvement in staging, tumour delineation and real-time guidance for RT and assessment of treatment response, thereby complementing the limitations of currently used imaging strategies. aEuro cent MRI's role in oesophageal cancer has been somewhat limited to date. aEuro cent However MRI's ability to depict oesophageal cancer is continuously improving. aEuro cent Optimising TN-staging, radiotherapy planning and response assessment ultimately improves individualised cancer care. aEuro cent MRI potentially complements the limitations of other imaging strategies regarding these points.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available