アメリカの放射線学会誌の最も有名な雑誌の一つに「Radiology」があります。Mark L. Schiebler,M.D.が、RadiologyのEDITORIALとして報告した以下の論文に、私が2016年に報告した肺癌に対するwhole-body DW MRI（ドゥイブス法）が引用されています。今後whole-body DW MRI（DWIBS）が、肺癌の臨床病期診断でPET-CTと同等であることが証明されれば、PET-CTの費用を減らし、PET-CTに置き換わるであろう述べています。そして、近い将来、whole-body DW MRI (DWIBS）だけが肺癌の新しい診断の利用されると予言しています。
Mark L. Schiebler,M.D. Can solitary pulmonary nodules be accurately characterized with diffusion-weighted MRI? Radiology 2019; 290:535–536 https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.2018182442
(引用された英文) There is a single report by Usuda et al. that shows that DW MRI can be used to adequately stage NSCLC. In their study of 67 patients with NSCLC, PET/CT plus brain MRI showed a pathologic staging accuracy of 0.69, while in the same group, whole-body DW MRI had a pathologic staging accuracy of 0 .75. These data (8) clearly point to a need for an adequately powered prospective randomized trial to help definitively answer this question. Specifically, if whole-body DW MRI can be shown to have equipoise with 18F-FDG PET for the clinical staging of NSCLC, this would reduce the costs of patient work-up because 18F-FDG PET would no longer be needed. Perhaps in the near future, only whole-body DW MRI will be needed for clinical staging in patients with a new diagnosis of NSCLC.
(引用された論文) Usuda K, et al. Diagnostic Performance of Whole-Body Diffusion-Weighted Imaging Compared to PET-CT Plus Brain MRI in Staging Clinically Resectable Lung Cancer. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2016; 17: 2775-2780.
Usuda K, et al. Diffusion-weighted whole-body imaging with background suppression (DWIBS) is effective and economical for detection of metastasis or recurrence of lung cancer. Thoracic cancer 2021: doi.org/10.1111/1759-7714.13820
