title: Evaluation of preoperative staging in advanced gastric cancer with MRI.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to the preoperative staging of advanced gastric cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  An MRI (SE sequence) was preoperatively performed on 34 patients with advanced gastric cancer. The tumors were located at the cardia fundus in 11 patients, the corpus in 14, the antrum in ten and throughout the entire stomach in two. The images were analyzed and staged on the basis of the criteria proposed by Matsushita M. The results were compared with the corresponding histopathologic findings to analyze the rate of diagnostic accordance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The diagnostic rate accuracy by MRI was 77.8% (seven out of nince) for T2 tumors; 77.3% (17 out of 22) for T3 tumors and 100% (three out of three) for T4 tumors, with the overall accuracy equaling 79.4%. When grades T3 and T4 tumors were considered as a single group to determine the presence or absence of extraserosal invasion using MRI technology, the diagnostic accuracy was 88.3%. Statistically, MRI staging showed a significant correlation with the corresponding histopathologic staging using the Spearman correlation test (rs' = 0.743, P < 0.01). When the concordance between MRI and histopathologic staging results were studied according to tumor location, the staging accuracy was highest (90.9%) in tumors located in gastric cardia fundus.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MR imaging is moderately valuable when staging advanced gastric cancer, especially for tumors located in gastric cardia fundus.
authors.affiliation: Guang-Yu Tang, Qing-Lu Guo, Ping-Ping Xin, Section of MRI, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China.
authors.forename: G Y
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Guang-Yu Tang, Qing-Lu Guo, Ping-Ping Xin, Section of MRI, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China.
authors.forename: Q L
authors.initials: QL
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Guang-Yu Tang, Qing-Lu Guo, Ping-Ping Xin, Section of MRI, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Jiangxi Medical College, Nanchang 330006, Jiangxi Province, China.
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Xin
keywords: Magnetic resonance imaging; Neoplasm staging; Stomach neoplasms/diagnosis