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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Death rates from cervical cancer have dropped dramatically over the past decades due to the Pap test and now a new test could help doctors identify cancer even earlier. Researchers say by using high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), they get better imaging of smaller tumors.
The study included 59 women between 24 and 83 who were in put in two groups. Group one included women awaiting biopsies due to abnormal cervical tissue development at screening. Group two included women who had cervical cancer confirmed by a biopsy. The patients underwent the MRI procedure with a special vaginal coil positioned around the cervix. The coil was designed to image the cervix and enable the measurement of water within the tissue cells. Researchers found the level of water was lower with cancerous tissue compared to normal tissue.
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Cervical cancers increasingly are being picked up at an earlier stage, Nandita deSouza, FRCR, professor and co-director of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research Group at The Institute of Cancer Research in London, was quoted as saying. This procedure causes no more discomfort than a Pap test and the diffusion-weighted imaging itself only takes 84 seconds.
Measurement of water diffusion enabled us to differentiate cervical cancers from the normal glandular lining of the cervix, adds deSouza. Use of these measurements in conjunction with conventional MRI makes detection of early stage cervical cancer easier.
Its estimated that more than 11,000 American women will be diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer this year.
SOURCE: Radiology, 2008
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