Dear CT Insider,
Esophageal cancer has earned an unfortunate designation as the fastest rising malignancy in the U.S. The incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma rose from 3.8 per million between 1973 and 1975 to 23.3 per million in 2001, according to a recent study based on the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result (SEER) database. Like pancreatic cancer, most esophageal carcinomas are still diagnosed in later stages, when treatment options are few.
Fortunately, CT is doing a better job of detecting and staging esophageal cancer these days, thanks to innovative imaging work by Japanese researchers.
A group from Kyoto University Hospital in Kyoto, Japan, compared arterial- to venous-phase imaging for esophageal cancer detection. Another team, from Chiba University in Chiba, Japan, tested a novel method of evaluating pericardial invasion in advanced esophageal cancer. Find out how their results are improving CT's ability to evaluate the esophagus this issue's CT Insider Exclusive, brought to you before it is made available to our other AuntMinnie members.
Japanese innovation in CT doesn't stop at the esophagus, of course. In this week's CT Digital Community, you'll find a study on renal imaging and contrast timing, a task that becomes more unforgiving each time MDCT scanners get faster. Radiologists from the Gifu University School of Medicine in Gifu, Japan, sought to determine the optimal scan delay required for renal arterial cortomedullary, nephrographic, and renal-venous phases of contrast MDCT of the kidneys, using the bolus-tracking program.
Also in the Community, a team from Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine found MDCT's accuracy to be equivalent to that of MRI for assessing myocardial viability, though a concurrent study by German researchers still gives MRI the edge.
Last but not least, a study from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston calls whole-body CT a very expensive way to extend lives. But is the methodology up to snuff? Critics think not.
Stay tuned for more CT news as AuntMinnie heads to Vienna next week for the 2005 European Congress of Radiology.
