Whole-Body MRI in the Evaluation of Pediatric Malignancies

OBJECTIVES:

Primary

• Compare non-inferior diagnostic performance of whole-body MRI (i.e., combination of turbo short-tau inversion-recovery (STIR) and out-of-phase imaging) vs conventional imaging (i.e., the combination of chest CT scan, scintigraphy [bone, gallium, meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG), or optional fludeoxyglucose F 18 positron emission tomography (FDG-PET)] and abdominal/pelvic CT scan/MRI as indicated) for detecting distant metastases for use in staging common tumors in pediatric patients.

Secondary

• Determine the incremental benefit of adding out-of-phase T1-weighted gradient-recalled echo imaging to turbo STIR for detecting distant disease in these patients.
• Determine, preliminarily, the relative accuracies of FDG-PET, whole-body MRI, and a combination of FDG-PET and whole-body MRI in detecting stage IV disease in these patients.
• Determine the effects of multiple factors, including cancer type, site of primary tumor, and patient age, on diagnostic accuracy of whole-body MRI in these patients.
• Determine the interobserver variability associated with interpreting whole-body MRI exams for detecting distant metastases in these patients.