Validation of 18F-FDG PET/MRI and diffusion-weighted MRI for estimating the extent of peritoneal carcinomatosis in ovarian and endometrial cancer -a pilot study

Abstract

Background The extent of peritoneal carcinomatosis is difficult to estimate preoperatively, but a valid measure would be important in identifying operable patients . The present study set out to validate the usefulness of integrated 18 F-FDG PET/MRI, in comparison with diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI), for estimation of the extent of peritoneal carcinomatosis in patients with gynaecological cancer. Methods Whole-body PET/MRI was performed on 34 patients with presumed carcinomatosis of gynaecological origin, all scheduled for surgery. Two radiologists evaluated the peritoneal cancer index (PCI) on PET/MRI and DW-MRI scans in consensus. The surgeon estimated PCI intraoperatively, which was used as the gold standard. Results Median total PCI for PET/MRI (21.5) was closer to surgical PCI (24.5) ( p \xa0=\u20090.6), than DW-MRI (median PCI 20.0, p \xa0=\u20090.007). However, both methods were highly correlated with the surgical PCI (PET/MRI: β\u2009=\u20090.94 p \xa0<\u20090.01, DW-MRI: β\u2009=\u20090.86, p \xa0<\u20090.01). PET/MRI was more accurate ( p \u2009=\u20090.3) than DW-MRI ( p \u2009=\u20090.001) when evaluating patients at primary diagnosis but no difference was noted in patients treated with chemotherapy. PET/MRI was superior in evaluating high tumour burden in inoperable patients. In the small bowel regions, there was a tendency of higher sensitivity but lower specificity in PET/MRI compared to DW-MRI. Conclusions Our results suggest that FDG PET/MRI is superior to DW-MRI in estimating total spread of carcinomatosis in gynaecological cancer. Further, the greatest advantage of PET/MRI seems to be in patients at primary diagnosis and with high tumour burden, which suggest that it could be a useful tool when deciding about operability in gynaecological cancer.