Functional MR Imaging in Gynecologic Cancer

Dynamic-contrast enhanced (DCE) and diffusion-weighted (DW) MR imaging are invaluable in the detection, staging, and characterization of uterine and ovarian malignancies , for monitoring treatment response, and for identifying disease recurrence. When used as adjuncts to morphologic T2-weighted (T2-W) MR imaging, these techniques improve accuracy of disease detection and staging. DW-MR imaging is preferred because of its ease of implementation and lack of need for an extrinsic contrast agent. MR spectroscopy is difficult to implement in the clinical workflow and lacks both sensitivity and specificity. If used quantitatively in multicenter clinical trials , standardization of DCE- and DW-MR imaging techniques and rigorous quality assurance is mandatory.