Value of multimodal magnetic resonance imaging for TN staging and surgical decision making in rectal cancer

Abstract

Objective To investigate the application value of multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for TN staging and surgical decision making in rectal cancer. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the MRI features of 396 patients with rectal cancer treated in our hospital from January 2020 to May 2022 for preoperative TN staging and decision-making on surgical approaches. We analyzed the accuracy of TN staging assisted by multimodal MRI as well as the consistency between multimodal MRI-informed surgical decisions and actual surgical decisions. Results The coincidence rate of preoperative T staging of rectal cancer assisted by multimodal MRI was 90.15%, with high agreement with postoperative pathological results (K=0.82,P<0.01), and the diagnostic accuracy rates for T2 to T4 stages were high. The coincidence rate of N staging was 71.46%, with mode-rate agreement with postoperative pathological results (K=0.53,P<0.01). Surgical options selected with the assistance of multimodal MRI were 89.14% consistent with actual surgical decisions, indicating high agreement between the two (K=0.79,P<0.01), and the accuracy rates with multimodal MRI were high for all surgical approaches. Conclusion Multimodal MRI has great clinical value for preoperative TN staging of rectal cancer and surgical decision making.

Keywords

• rectal neoplasms|magnetic resonance imaging|multimodal imaging|neoplasm staging|surgical procedures, operative