Application of 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging in endometrial cancer

To determine the diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in detecting myometrial invasion, cervical involvement and disease stage in endometrial cancer.

168 consecutive patients with endometrial carcinoma underwent preoperative MRI. We classified myometrial invasion as no invasion, ≤50% invasion or >50% invasion and cervical involvement as positive or negative. The preoperative MRI findings and stagings were compared with final surgical and histological staging; the latter was taken as the gold standard. Standard statistical calculations were used.

The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of MRI for the detection of myometrial invasion >50% were 64.7, 92.5, and 86.9%, respectively. Positive and negative predictive values were 68.8 and 91.2%, respectively. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of MRI for the detection of cervical invasion were 52.63, 93.08, and 83.93%, respectively. Positive and negative predictive values were 68.97 and 87.05%, respectively. 102 cases were classified as stage IA (early disease) by histology. MRI accurately predicted the degree of invasion in 88 cases and overestimated in 14, giving a sensitivity of 86.3% and specificity of 69.1%. However, MRI showed reduced sensitivity for predicting stage IB and advanced endometrial cancer (stages III and IV) at 33.3 and 30.3%, respectively, but was found to be specific for predicting these stages; the specificity were 94.7 and 85.1%, respectively. MRI also showed good accuracy for predicting stage IA, IB, II and advanced endometrial cancer at 80.4, 86.9, 91.7, and 83.9, respectively.

MRI assists in planning the surgical treatment of endometrial cancer with good accuracy and specificity, although sensitivity is suboptimal.