Diagnostic accuracy of MRI in staging of cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is the third most common gynecologic cancer in women worldwide. Cervical cancer has lower incidence and mortality rates than uterine corpus and ovarian cancer, as well as many other cancer sites. Unfortunately, in countries that do not have access to cervical cancer screening and prevention programs, cervical cancer remains the second most common type of cancer. Staging of the disease is made clinically. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for diagnosing the invasion of cancer to organs and staging of cervical cancer and the relationship between clinical and pathological findings and the sensitivity and specificity of the assay in cervical cancer.
The study included records of 40 patients with cervical cancer that undergo surgery or Chemoradiation in Firoozgar University Hospital. In this study that made retrospectively, non-randomized, the MRI reports and clinical findings records and pathology results was discussed. The sensitivity and specificity of MRI for diagnosing the invasion to parameters, bladder, rectum, vagina, pelvic wall and it’s accuracy to determine tumor stage has been set.
A total of 40 patients with pathology information of cervical cancer was retrospectively reviewed in the study. The patients were 28-83 years old by mean age of 49.3 Pathology of cervical cancer in 80% of cases was SCC, 15% adenocarcinoma and 5% melanoma. The sensitivity and specificity of MRI for diagnosing invasion of parameter was 76% and 88%. The sensitivity of MRI in the detection of bladder invasion was 100% and specificity of 100%. The sensitivity of MRI in the diagnosis of rectal invasion was 50% and specificity of 100%. The sensitivity of MRI in the diagnosis of pelvic wall invasion was 100% and specificity of 86%. Sensitivity in detecting invasion into the upper third of the vagina was 100%.
Overall, this study showed a good sensitivity and specificity for detecting invasion into the bladder, vagina, pelvic wall and parameters and good specificity for the diagnosis of rectal invasion and acceptable accuracy at 67.5% for detection of tumor stage by MRI show.