T2-weighted MR images are effective for distinguishing between uterine fibroids and uterine cancers, researchers reported in the May issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.
A team led by Dr. Luke Gerges from NYU Langone Medical Center investigated whether texture analysis of multiple MRI sequences could differentiate uterine leiomyomas from leiomyosarcomas. The study included 17 leiomyosarcomas and 51 leiomyomas that were imaged with MRI before surgery. Gerges and colleagues assessed whole-lesion volumes of interest using T2-weighted images, contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images, and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps (AJR, May 2018, Vol. 210:5, pp. 1172-1177).
Patients with leiomyosarcoma were older than those with leiomyoma, the group found. For whole-lesion histogram metrics taken on various MRI sequences, T2-weighted images performed best for distinguishing between the two conditions. Models that combined the T2-weighted imaging whole-lesion metrics and took patient age into consideration showed particularly high diagnostic performance, while ADC maps had the lowest performance, the authors noted.
The findings could help clinicians better treat the two conditions, Gerges and colleagues wrote.
"Although these findings require validation in larger studies, they have implications for facilitating improved treatment selection for these two entities," they concluded.
