NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Nov 14 - Both dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and 3D MR spectroscopic imaging do better than T2-weighted MR in pinpointing prostate cancer, Dutch researchers report in the November issue of Radiology.
"Accurate prostate cancer localization is of great importance in patients with increasing prostate specific antigen -- PSA -- levels and repetitive MR-negative biopsies," lead investigator Dr. Jurgen J. Futterer told Reuters Health.
However, Dr. Futterer and colleagues at Radboud University, Nijmegen note that among difficulties in such localization are that benign prostatic hyperplasia has a signal density similar to that of cancer.
To investigate the utility of dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging and 3D MR spectroscopic imaging in improving results, the researchers studied 34 patients with a mean PSA level of 8 ng/mL. Their median biopsy Gleason score was 6.
Two radiologists with different levels of experienced examined the images obtained with these methods and with T2-weighted MR.
Reader accuracy in tumor localization with dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging was significantly better than that with quantitative spectroscopic imaging.
Moreover, results with both dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging and spectroscopic imaging were significantly better than that with T2-weighted imaging.
Given these findings, the researchers concluded that "if these advanced techniques are included in the MR imaging protocol, the localization of prostate cancer in patients will improve."
By David Douglas
Last Updated: 2006-11-13 14:40:10 -0400 (Reuters Health)
Radiology 2006;24:449-458.
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