Can Staging Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Features Prognosticate Patients Presenting With Endometrial Cancer?

Aim: Assess the value of MRI features in predicting prognosis in patients with endometrial cancer

Background:

Endometrial cancer is the commonest gynaecological cancer in the United Kingdom. MR Imaging is used to provide pre-treatment local staging in Endometrial Cancer based on the FIGO staging system. This MRI stage is used by clinicians, in combination with pre-operative histology and clinical assessment of the patient, to counsel patients about their prognosis.

Currently the information obtained from the MRI study is largely anatomical and concerns the extent of local tumour spread at the time of diagnosis. Each stage under the FIGO system is associated with a prognosis based on data from the literature. Important prognostic indicators include the depth of tumour invasion in the uterine muscle (myometrium), invasion of the cervical stroma by tumour, spread to lymph node tissues and the histological sub-type of tumour present.

However, with ever improving MRI technology there are now newer sequences employed as part of the staging study which may potentially yield more information. In other cancer types, e.g. prostate, breast and liver, textural analysis of the tumour on pre-treatment imaging (CT/PET-CT/MRI) is being analysed to try and identify features which could be used as prognostic markers for patient outcome.