MRI May Predict Survival After Neoadjuvant Therapy for Rectal Cancer

MRI of rectal cancer may be used
to predict outcomes, new research
shows. (Image by permission of
Learn Colorectal Surgery.)

Using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) researchers have shown for the first time that MR imaging can be used to assess neoadjuvant treatment response before surgery for rectal cancer. The researchers concluded that MRI may also be used to predict overall and disease-free survival in these patients.

The researchers led by Dr. Gina Brown, honorary senior lecturer in the Department of Radiology at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, UK, analyzed the results of a subgroup of the MERCURY trial to measure tumor shrinkage in 111 patients treated with chemotherapy, radiation or both before surgery. Brown told The Hub by e-mail that the difference in this study and previous research was that the radiologists in this study paid careful attention to circumferential resection margins (CRM) and fibrosis following treatment. (Link to published site)