In oncology, a role of primary importance is played by imaging diagnostics, an essential ally for the identification and characterization of the disease. In order to provide all the information necessary for clinicians to set the most appropriate treatment path, the Radiology Department of the Institute for the Study of Tumors “Dino Amadori” Irccs, directed by Dr. Domenico Barone, a member of the Advanced Procedures and Technologies Department directed by Professor Giovanni Paganelli, has enhanced the 3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance present in the Institute with particular configurations (called sequences) of the latest generation that will allow scanning of the patient’s entire body without using radiation. The Whole Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Wb-Mri) study has great potential in both clinical and research fields.
At the IRST this method is carried out with an innovative technique, similar to that used at the European Institute of Oncology (Ieo) in Milan, currently used only in a few centers in Italy and is mainly reserved for patients within research protocols active in the Institute (on multiple myeloma, prostate tumors and melanoma), therefore strictly connected to well-defined access requirements. “The whole body Mri – explains Alice Rossi, an Irst radiologist who was primarily trained in the management and reading of this type of exams – is an innovative exam performed with a specially configured and highly performing magnetic resonance scanner. minutes, to obtain high quality images of the body without the use of ionizing radiation or, in most cases, of intravenous contrast medium. It allows you to merge the data of the “diffusion weighted” images (Diffusion Weighted Imaging, Dwi) with high quality MR morphological images. With the diffusion technique, in fact, we are able to see the water molecules contained within the tissues and use them as a contrast medium to highlight the tumor pathology “.
“The Wb-Mri – he continues – has already shown excellent diagnostic performance and is already approved by international guidelines in the study of some cancer pathologies such as multiple myeloma, prostate cancer and melanoma. Furthermore, WB-MRI has brilliant prospects in the field. research and early diagnosis of tumors. This type of diagnostics, due to its innovative nature, requires not only the optimal teamwork between radiologists, medical radiology technicians and health physicists that the Irst team is capable of to ensure, but also a profound interpretative competence, know-how that I acquired thanks to a long period of training in the field at the Iep with Professor Giuseppe Petralia, director of the Precision Imaging and Research Unit and one of the world‘s leading experts in this method, and his staff who supported in the optimal development of the technique and with whom we actively collaborate “.
Professor Paganelli, who strongly wanted this method in the Institute, expresses great satisfaction with the results already obtained from the first uses: “Thanks to the whole body Mri we have the possibility to make even more precise and timely diagnoses, being able to identify lesions even very small. The combination of this tool with the methods we were already using allows us to provide a precision diagnostic service, and therefore consequently to provide the patient with increasingly personalized and effective care. In the future we plan to expand the scope of the Wb-Mri to further research protocols “.