MRI
Uses magnets and radio waves, no radiation, to give very detailed pictures of soft tissue such as brain, breast, liver, and prostate.
Superior soft-tissue contrast makes MRI the standard for brain tumours, prostate (multiparametric MRI with PI-RADS), rectal cancer staging, liver lesions, breast screening in high-risk women, and bone marrow. Diffusion-weighted imaging adds cellularity information. Whole-body MRI is used in myeloma and for radiation-free surveillance.
How it works
Proton spin alignment in a strong magnetic field; radiofrequency excitation and relaxation times (T1, T2) encode tissue properties. Gadolinium contrast shows perfusion.
- No ionising radiation
- Best soft-tissue and brain imaging
- Functional sequences (diffusion, perfusion)
- Slow and expensive
- Motion artefacts
- Gadolinium concerns in renal impairment
Young adults with a grade 2 IDH-mutant glioma who have had surgery can now take a daily tablet that slows or reverses tumour growth and defers radiotherapy and chemotherapy, both of which carry long-term cognitive costs, by years. It confirms that the IDH mutation is a driver that can be targeted, not just a marker. Whether it improves survival or cognition over the long term, and whether it helps in higher-grade or previously treated tumours, is unknown.
Patients with rectal cancer whose tumour is mismatch-repair deficient (about 5-10% of rectal cancers) can now be offered immunotherapy alone with the realistic expectation of avoiding surgery, radiotherapy and a permanent stoma. This requires mismatch repair testing on the diagnostic biopsy, close endoscopic and MRI surveillance, and treatment in an experienced centre. It does not apply to the 90% of rectal cancers that are mismatch-repair proficient.
Latest papers
topQuery for this technology: (TITLE:"magnetic resonance imaging" OR ABSTRACT:"magnetic resonance imaging" OR TITLE:"multiparametric MRI" OR ABSTRACT:"multiparametric MRI") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about MRI, not a curated reading list.