Invasive adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix: MR imaging

The detection of adenocarcinoma of the cervix is difficult in clinical examination, leading to poor prognoses. We evaluated MR appearances of 23 patients with adenocarcinoma of the cervix and appearances of 65 patients with cervical SCCs were also evaluated for comparison. Both T2-weighted spin echo, dynamic and postcontrast Gd-DTPA enhanced techniques were obtained at a 1.5 Tesla MR unit. The results of our study showed that adenocarcinoma of the cervix have MR imaging features which may permit distinction from SCCs which include: large tumors with preservation of endocervical epithelium, lesser contrast enhancement, and greater enhancement of the tumor periphery. Understaging may be more problematic with adenocarcinoma than SCC.