Tobias Heye MD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

1) To learn about the possibilities and challenges of whole body MRI in oncologic imaging. 2) To identify clinical scenarios and oncologic disease entities in which whole body MRI is applicable and offers added value. 3) To be able to create a disease specific whole body MRI protocol which balances acquisition time and the amount of acquired information. 4) To understand how whole body MRI performs in diagnostic accuracy, acquisition time, and cost compared to competing staging modalities.

Detection and characterization of local disease in conjunction with identification of distant metastases is the main goal in oncologic imaging. Certain oncologic disease entities are per se affecting the body in a diffuse pattern for example multiple myeloma or lymphoma. In both scenarios, local disease with possible distant metastases or diffuse, multifocal disease, imaging protocols using different modalities are incorporated to screen the entire body. The continuous development of MRI technology led to improvements in acquisition time and volume coverage allowing for whole body imaging in a practical time period. However, MRI remains a more challenging imaging method in terms of protocol preparation, actual scanning, providing diagnostic images, patient comfort and acquisition time compared to other imaging modalities which offer whole body coverage such as CT or PET-CT. On the other hand there are abundant MRI specific imaging characteristics available including different contrasts, diffusion and perfusion imaging, which may provide additional information for a given oncologic disease compared with other modalities. The challenge in whole body MRI is to balance the multitude of available MRI sequences with the amount of information needed to answer the clinical question thus providing a robust imaging protocol tailored to the clinical indication.

Heye, T, Whole Body MRI—Oncologic Applications.  Radiological Society of North America 2014 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, - ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2014/13013020.html