Diffusion-weighted imaging of prostate cancer

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess whether T2-weighted (T2W) imaging with diffusion-weighted (DW) imaging could improve prostate cancer detection as compared with T2W imaging alone. Methods: The subjects consisted of 37 patients with prostate cancer and 23 without cancer undergoing magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Using a 1.5-T superconducting magnet, all patients underwent T2W and DW imaging with parallel imaging. Images were independently reviewed by 3 readers to determine the detectability of prostate cancer. The detectability of T2W imaging without and with DW imaging was assessed by means of receiver operating characteristic analysis. Results: Mean areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve for T2W imaging alone and for T2W imaging with DW imaging were 0.87 and 0.93, respectively. The receiver operating characteristic analysis showed that the addition of DW imaging to conventional T2W imaging significantly improved tumor detection (P = 0.0468) compared with T2W imaging alone. Conclusions: The addition of DW imaging to conventional T2W imaging provides better detection of prostate cancer.