title: Local staging and assessment of colon cancer with 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging.
abstract: The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of 1.5-T MRI in the pre-operative local T and N staging of colon cancer and identification of extramural vascular invasion (EMVI).
  Between 2010 and 2012, 60 patients with adenocarcinoma of the colon were prospectively recruited at 2 centres. 55 patients were included for final analysis. Patients received pre-operative 1.5-T MRI with high-resolution T2weighted, gadolinium-enhanced T1weighted and diffusion-weighted images. These were blindly assessed by two expert radiologists. Accuracy of the T-stage, N-stage and EMVI assessment was evaluated using post-operative histology as the gold standard.
  Results are reported for two readers. Identification of T3 disease demonstrated an accuracy of 71% and 51%, sensitivity of 74% and 42% and specificity of 74% and 83%. Identification of N1 disease demonstrated an accuracy of 57% for both readers, sensitivity of 26% and 35% and specificity of 81% and 74%. Identification of EMVI demonstrated an accuracy of 74% and 69%, sensitivity 63% and 26% and specificity 80% and 91%.
  1.5-T MRI achieved a moderate accuracy in the local evaluation of colon cancer, but cannot be recommended to replace CT on the basis of this study.
  This study confirms that MRI is a viable alternative to CT for the local assessment of colon cancer, but this study does not reproduce the very high accuracy reported in the only other study to assess the accuracy of MRI in colon cancer staging.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College, London, UK.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Gastrointestinal Radiology, Croydon University Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Blake
authors.affiliation: 2 Department of Gastrointestinal Radiology, Croydon University Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Nelesh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jeyadevan
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Colorectal Surgery, Croydon University Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Muti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abulafi
authors.affiliation: 3 Department of Colorectal Surgery, Croydon University Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Swift
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Colorectal Surgery, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals, London, UK.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Toomey
authors.affiliation: 5 Department of Gastrointestinal Radiology, The Royal Marsden Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Brown