One of the most famous journals in American radiology is “Radiology”. Mark L. Schiebler,M.D. as EDITORIAL of Radiology in 2016 cited our paper of whole-body DW MRI (DWIBS) for lung cancer. He mentioned that if the diagnostic ability of whole-body DW MRI (DWIBS) is proven to be equivalent to PET-CT for clinical staging of lung cancer while also reducing medical cots it will ultimately replace PET-CT in the future. Furthermore he predicted that only whole-body DW MRI (DWIBS) will be utilized for the diagnosis and staging of lung cancer.
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
(Quoted sentence) 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. This data (8) clearly points 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.
(Quoted paper) 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 2021:12 (5):676-684.
