Diffusion Weighted Imaging in Malignacy- A Review

Seems like diffusion imaging will soon be useful for all body malignancies and follow up post therapy. Newer applications for DWI are on the way.

Diffusion-weighed MR imaging of pancreatic carcinoma.. Abdom Imaging. 2007 Jul-Aug;32(4):481-3. By Matsuki M et al

Diffusion-weighted (DW) images can be helpful in detecting the pancreatic carcinoma and accessing the extent of the tumor. On the DW images, carcinomas were shown as high signal intensity relative to the surrounding tissue. The ADC valuein the carcinoma was significantly lower compared to that of normal pancreas and tumor-associated chronic pancreatitis

Diffusion-weighted MR imaging for urinary bladder carcinoma: initial results. Eur Radiol. 2007 Jan;17(1):201-4. Epub 2006 Jul 25. Matsuki M et al

They concluded, DW images under free breathing enabled the clear detection of theurinary bladder carcinoma, whose ADC values were lower compared with those of the surrounding structure. The DW images may be useful in evaluating tumors invading to the surrounding structures.

Lung carcinoma: diffusion-weighted mr imaging—preliminary evaluation withapparent diffusion coefficient. Radiology. 2007 May;243(2):570-7. Epub 2007 Mar 30.Matoba M et al.

With the Spearman rank test, ADCs of lung carcinomas correlated well with tumor cellularities ADCs of lung carcinomas overlap, but ADCs of well-differentiated adenocarcinoma appear to be higher than those of other histologic lung carcinoma types.

Pituitary macroadenomas: preoperative evaluation of consistency with diffusion-weighted MR imaging—initial experience. Radiology. 2006 Apr;239(1):223-31. Epub 2006 Feb 1. Pierallini A et al

Findings in this study suggest that DW MR images with ADC maps can provide information about the consistency of macroadenomas

Diffusion-weighted MRI in the evaluation of renal lesions: preliminary results. Br J Radiol. 2004 Oct;77(922):851-7. Cova M et al

They concluded diffusion-weighted MR imaging of the kidney seems to be a reliable way to differentiate normal renal parenchyma and different renal diseases. Clinical experience with this method is still preliminary and further studies are required.

Diffusion-weighted MR imaging of metastatic disease of the spine: assessment ofresponse to therapy. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2002 Jun-Jul;23(6):906-12. Byun WM et al.

In cases of metastatic disease of the spine, monitoring the response to medical therapy with plain radiography, bone scanning, and conventional spin-echo sequence MR imaging is unsatisfactory because of the insensitivity or nonspecific findings of these imaging modalities. Diffusion-weighted MR imaging shows that, with successful therapy, there is decreased signal intensity ofmetastatic disease of the vertebral bone marrow.

Hepatic metastases: diffusion-weighted sensitivity-encoding versus SPIO-enhanced MR imaging. Radiology. 2006 Apr;239(1):122-30. Epub 2006 Feb 21. Nasu K et al

They concluded combined reading of DW SENSE images and T2-weighted fast SE and dual-echo T1-weighted FFE MR images showed higher accuracy in the detection of hepatic metastases than did reading of SPIO-enhanced MR images

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