Preoperative T Staging of Potentially Resectable Esophageal Cancer: A Comparison between Free-Breathing Radial VIBE and Breath-Hold Cartesian VIBE, with Histopathological Correlation.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the T staging of potentially resectable esophageal cancer using free-breathing radial VIBE (r-VIBE) and breath-hold Cartesian VIBE (C-VIBE), with pathologic confirmation of the T stage.


METHODS
Fifty patients with endoscopically proven esophageal cancer and indeterminate T1/T2/T3 stage by CT scan were examined on a 3-T scanner. The MRI protocol included C-VIBE at 150 seconds post-IV contrast, immediately followed by a work-in-progress r-VIBE with identical spatial resolution (1.1 mm × 1.1 mm × 3.0 mm). Two independent readers assigned a T stage on MRI according to the 7th edition of UICC-AJCC TNM Classification, and postoperative pathologic confirmation was considered the gold standard. Interreader agreement was also calculated.


RESULTS
The T staging agreement between both VIBE techniques and postoperative pathologic T staging was 52% (26/50) for C-VIBE, 80% (40/50) for r-VIBE for reader 1, and 50% (25/50), 82% (41/50) for reader 2, respectively. For the esophageal cancer with invading lamina propria, muscularis mucosae, or submucosa (T1 stage), r-VIBE achieved 86% (12/14) agreement for both readers 1 and 2. For invasion of muscularis propria (T2 stage), r-VIBE achieved 83% (25/30) for both readers 1 and 2, whereas for the invasion of adventitia (T3 stage), r-VIBE could only achieve agreement in 50% (3/6) and 67% (4/6) for readers 1 and 2, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Contrast-enhanced free-breathing r-VIBE is superior to breath-hold CVIBE in T staging of potentially resectable esophageal cancer, especially for T1 and T2.
Department of Radiology, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China, 450008.
Fengguang
F
Zhang
Department of Radiology, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China, 450008. Electronic address: qjryq@126.com.
Jinrong
J
Qu
Department of Radiology, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China, 450008.
Hongkai
H
Zhang
NEA MR Collaboration, Siemens Ltd., China, Shanghai, China, 201318.
Hui
H
Liu
Department of Thoracic surgery, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China,450008.
Jianjun
J
Qin
Department of Thoracic surgery, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China,450008.
Zhidan
Z
Ding
Department of Thoracic surgery, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China,450008.
Yin
Y
Li
Department of Pathology, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China, 450008.
Jie
J
Ma
Department of Pathology, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China, 450008.
Zhongxian
Z
Zhang
Department of Radiology, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China, 450008.
Zhaoqi
Z
Wang
Department of Radiology, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China, 450008.
Jianwei
J
Zhang
Department of Radiology, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China, 450008.
Shouning
S
Zhang
Department of Radiology, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China, 450008.
Yafeng
Y
Dong
MR-Predevelopment, Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Erlangen, Germany, 91052.
Robert
R
Grimm
Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA, 21205-2196.
Ihab R
IR
Kamel
Department of Radiology, the Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Henan Cancer Hospital, Zhengzhou, China, 450008. Electronic address: doctorhnchr@126.com.
Hailiang
H
Li