AuntMinnie.com MRI Insider

Dear AuntMinnie MRI Insider,

Diffusion-weighted MRI is often used as a predictive tool, helping clinicians forecast a patient's response to cancer treatment or whether a particular disease -- such as ductal carcinoma in situ -- will progress to invasive cancer after surgery.

But in this edition of our MRI Insider, we're highlighting findings that suggest that the technique also shows promise for identifying which women with ovarian cancer would benefit from primary debulking surgery (that is, the removal of the uterus and cervix, one or both ovaries, one or both fallopian tubes, or the small intestine) before chemotherapy, and which would do better to go directly to treatment instead.

Once you've read our exclusive, take a look at our coverage of how O-RADS MRI scoring can assess malignancy risk in adnexal masses after inconclusive ultrasound and why a team from the University of Wisconsin says that abbreviated MRI protocols can make use of the modality effective in urgent care situations that require neuroimaging.

We're also highlighting research from the recent Society of Breast Imaging meeting, including a study that used MRI to show that lobular carcinoma in situ is both a cancer precursor indicator and a marker for increased breast cancer risk, as well as another study that underscored the importance of supplemental screening with MRI for finding interval breast cancers.

Check out our story on a team of researchers' efforts to use functional MRI to create what the group calls a "noninvasive language decoder" that could potentially offer a window into the minds of people incapable of speaking. Plus, another report demonstrated how relatively simple power-saving strategies could reduce MRI carbon emissions by more than a third.

Last but not least, get the scoop on the American College of Radiology's latest breast cancer screening guideline, which stresses the need for women with genetics-based increased risk of the disease, those with a calculated lifetime risk of 20% or more, and those exposed to chest radiation at a young age to have MRI surveillance starting at age 25.

MRI offers so much to the healthcare enterprise. Keep apprised of its many benefits as well as its technological developments by visiting our MRI Community regularly. If you have MRI topics you'd like us to consider, please contact me.