MRI and PET/CT Can Help Prevent Unnecessary Treatment of Some Cervical Cancer Patients

"What we found was that PET/CT alone best triages patients to the correct primary therapy,” she said.

The percentage of patients triaged to optimal first line therapy was 89% with PET/CT, according to Dr. Pandharipande. That compared to 82% with no imaging, 75% with MRI and PET/CT, and 68% with MRI. These patients are treated with either surgery, chemoradiation, or surgery followed by chemoradiation (trimodality therapy).

"When MRI and PET/CT are combined, it best prevents undesired triage to high-morbidity trimodality therapy,” said Dr. Pandharipande. The study found that the percentage of patients spared trimodality therapy were 95% when both MRI and PET/CT were used, 92% with PET/CT alone, 91.6% with MRI alone, and 82% with no imaging, she said.

Whereas imaging helps define the extent of disease and thus helps determine appropriate treatment, the study found that five-year survival estimates were similar (approximately 92%) regardless of whether the patient had no pretreatment imaging, or pretreatment imaging with PET/CT alone, MRI alone or both PET/CT and MRI.

"MRI and PET/CT are commonly used to guide management decisions for patients with early cervical cancer,” said Dr. Pandharipande. "This study provides us with an evidence-based approach to the role of preoperative imaging for these patients.”


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