Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of endorectal surface coil (ERC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the local staging of adenocarcinoma of the prostate (ACP).
Materials and methods: A total of 23 patients who were considered candidates for radical prostatectomy because of clinically localized ACP were examined by ERC-MRI. All patients underwent laparoscopic or open lymph-node dissection prior to surgery. Four patients had positive lymph nodes at operation. A total of 19 underwent radical prostatectomy, allowing comparison of the MRI data with the surgical pathologic findings.
Results: Twelve patients had extraglandular spread of ACP (T3) and 7 had locally confined ACP (T2). ERC-MRI predicted correctly a T3 tumor in 10 of 12 cases and a T2 tumor in 4 of 7 cases. ERC-MRI was 74% accurate in differentiating T2 from T3 tumor. Three cases of overestimation were in studies with poor image quality because of bowel movement motion artifacts.
Conclusion: ERC-MRI was found to be a sensitive modality in staging clinically localized ACP.