title: Clinical utility of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in prostate cancer.
abstract: What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? This article reviews what is currently known about diffusion weighted MRI (DW-MRI) in prostate cancer. This mini-review concisely summarises, for clinical managing patients with prostate cancer, the clinical utility of diffusion weighted MRI.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  • To review the clinical utility of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) in patients with prostate cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  • The current literature on prostate cancer and DW-MRI was reviewed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  • DW-MRI can be readily acquired on a modern scanner with a short image acquisition time and no need for i.v. contrast medium. • The image contrast is based on the diffusion of water molecules and thus reflects tissue cellularity. • There is increasing evidence that DW- MRI improves the sensitivity and specificity of prostate cancer detection as well as the identification of tumour aggressiveness. • DW-MRI is also showing substantial promise as a response biomarker for both local and metastatic disease
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  • DW-MRI is proving to be a useful adjunct to conventional T2-weighted MRI sequences. • The eventual role of DW-MRI in combination with other MRI techniques for multiparametric assessment of prostate cancer needs to be defined further.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Asim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Afaq
authors.forename: Dow-Mu
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: Anwar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Padhani
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: van As
authors.forename: S Aslam
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Sohaib
mesh_terms: D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome