Value of Diffusion Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Diagnosis of Cervical Carcinoma

Abstract

arcinoma of the uterine cervix is the third most frequently diagnosed malignancy in women worldwide. MRI and DWI are excellent modalities for detecting invasive cervical cancer for planning of the treatment; it can provide objective measurement of Tumor size, Depth of cervical invasion and Extent of loco regional spread of cervical cancer. Our results proved that (DW–MRI) was beneficial in diagnosis of cancer cervix, so it implies a non-invasive technique which can be used especially if contrast intake is avoided as in pregnancy. Thus, we suggest that DWI should be included in the routine pelvic MRI protocol. The ADC value in case of cervical cancer was significantly lower than in the non-affected cervical tissue. As a result, cancer cervix due to their hyper cellular nature showed diffusion restriction (high signal intensity of DWI and low ADC maps) in all patients and the mean ADC values for cancer cervix in our study were (0.6-0.9± 0.1 SD mm2/sec).