Prostate cancer detection with 3-T MRI: comparison of diffusion-weighted and T2-weighted imaging.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the clinical value of diffusion-weighted (DW) and T2-weighted (T2W) imaging in detecting prostate cancer using a 3-Tesla (3T) magnetic resonance (MR) system.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Thirty-seven patients with suspected prostate cancer underwent T2W and DW imaging at 3T using an 8-channel phased-array coil. These images and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps were read retrospectively and blindly. The results were compared with histopathologic findings, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to compare the cancer detection performance of T2W and DW imaging.

RESULTS

The areas under the ROC curves for DW imaging and T2W imaging were 0.89 and 0.82, respectively. The performance of DW imaging in prostate cancer detection was significantly better than that of T2W imaging (P=0.0371).

CONCLUSION

With a 3T MR system, the performance of DW imaging in detecting prostate cancer was better than that of T2W imaging. DW imaging appears to be a robust and reliable method to examine the whole prostate within an acceptable scan time in clinical settings.