MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING IN RECTAL CANCER

Neoadjuvant treatment has shown its effectiveness in improving patient¿s outcome in locally advanced rectal carcinoma. Some patients show excellent response while others do not. We led a retrospective study with a rectal adenocarcinoma who had undergone initial MRI assessment and needed a neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy.The studied included 22 men and 8 women with a mean age of 57 years old. Eighteen patients had MRI after neoadjuvant treatment : tumoral response was considered subtle in 3 patients, almost complete in 3 patients and partial in 12 patients.Histological final assessment showed a complete response in 2 patients, partial response in 22 patients and non responsive tumor in 6 patients.Univariate analysis observed that having more than five loco regional lymph nodes, a more than 10mm suspicious loco regional lymph node and suspicious iliac lymph nodes on the initial MRI significantly increased (p=0.0001) the risk of absence of histological response. Combining conventional and functional MRI findings seems to have promising results helping the surgeon build a prediction model at the initial diagnosis and replan the treatment after the neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy.