Radiological staging of rectal cancer in a resource limited setting

BMC Res Notes. 2020 Oct 9;13(1):479. doi: 10.1186/s13104-020-05327-4.

Abstract

Objective: Current guidelines on rectal cancer (RC) management recommend pre-operative MRI for loco-regional staging and CT for staging of metastases. This allows appropriate selection of patients for chemo-radiotherapy (CRT). However, MRI is not freely available in many low-income countries. We assessed the status of pre-operative imaging for RC in Sri Lanka and evaluated the performance of CT in RC staging.

Results: A pre-tested interview-administered questionnaire was used to assess the pre-operative use of MRI and CT in RC. CT findings from 37 RC patients were then compared with histopathology findings. Of the 64 surgeons interviewed, 57 (89.1%) did not request an MRI for their RC patients. Reasons cited included limited availability and long waiting times due to competing health needs. A CT was requested by all. In RC, the overall accuracy of CT for T staging was 43.2% and 29.7% of T1-T2 tumours were over-staged as T3. The overall accuracy of CT for regional lymph node staging was 70.3%. In summary, CT alone is not suitable for RC staging in any setting. It leads to over-staging and patients may thus receive unnecessary CRT. Steps must be taken to improve access to pre-operative MRI among Sri Lankan RC patients.

Keywords: Computed tomography; Magnetic resonance imaging; Radiological staging; Rectal cancer.

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • Rectal Neoplasms* / diagnostic imaging
  • Rectal Neoplasms* / pathology
  • Rectal Neoplasms* / therapy
  • Sensitivity and Specificity
  • Sri Lanka