Thomas Kwee1, Erik Akkerman2,
Rob Fijnheer3, Marie Jose Kersten4, Joseph Zsiros5,
Inge Ludwig6, Marc Bierings7, Jaap Stoker2,
Rutger-Jan Nievelstein1
1Department of Radiology,
University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; 2Department
of Radiology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 3Department
of Hematology, Meander Medical Center, Amersfoort, Netherlands; 4Department
of Hematology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 5Department
of Pediatric Oncology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands; 6Department
of Hematology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; 7Department
of Pediatric Hematology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht,
Netherlands
Whole-body MRI may be a valuable alternative to (FDG-PET/)CT for staging lymphoma. However, it is unknown whether a whole-body MRI protocol is necessary, or whether an MRI protocol that only has the usual CT coverage (i.e. head/neck and trunk) is comparable while less time-consuming. In this prospective study including 100 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed lymphoma, whole-body MRI did not detect any clinically relevant lesions outside the field of view of an MRI protocol that only includes the head/neck and trunk. Therefore, it may be sufficient to only include the head/neck and trunk when using MRI for staging lymphoma.