Cervical cancer? You may benefit from MRI before treatment

Cervical cancer is one type of cancer that may be caught before it’s actually a full-blown cancer. Women who go for regular Pap smears may find out that they have changes in the cells on the cervix, called cervical dysplasia. This is precancer – it may or may not develop into cervical cancer.

If the cancer is caught at such an early stage, cure rates are extremely high. Now, with a bit more investigating with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and/or positron emission tomography (PET) plus computed tomography (CT), finding the right treatment for even better cure rates may be possible.

According to a press release issued by the American Roentgen Ray Society (the "x-ray guys"), "Pretreatment MRI and PET/CT for cervical cancer may direct more women to optimal therapy choices and spare many women potential long-term morbidity and complications of trimodality therapy (surgery followed by chemoradiation), according to a study performed at the Institute for Technology Assessment in Boston, MA."

A study looking at women with stage IB cervical cancer compared those who were treated without further pre-testing with those who were. The results showed that while this pre-treatment imaging didn’t affect if a woman survived the cancer, the imaging did pretty well ensure that the women received the best therapy for their particular situation.

Right now, there are no guidelines as to when MRI and PET/CT should be used pre-treatment, but the lead researcher says that knowing what type of treatment to use right off the bat will prevent the need for added treatment that could seriously affect a woman’s quality of life.

The study appears in the March issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

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Image: morguefile.com

Tags: cancer blog, cervical cancer, MRI, diagnosing cervical cancer, pap smear