Cervical cancer

The stage estimated by clinical FIGO staging is the main determinant in gui ding the treatment decisions. However, clinical FIGO staging does have inhe rent inaccuracies, because it does not include significant prognostic facto rs. Presently, MRI is not officially incorporated in the staging workup sys tem; however, it is widely accepted as the most reliable imaging modality i n evaluating cervical cancer and in treatment planning. MRI offers direct t umor visualization, accurate assessment of the depth of stromal invasion an d tumor volume, lymph node evaluation, and reliable staging accuracy. Publi shed reports show the superiority of MRI over clinical staging, and several recent works on dynamic MRI suggest further improvement of MRI in evaluati ng cervical cancer.