Whole-body-MR-diffusion weighted imaging in oncology.

UNLABELLED: The clinical implementation of whole body diffusion weighted imaging (WB-DWI) for tumor-detection, -characterization and therapy monitoring is well underway. The method is fast, robust and combined with its wide availability on modern MRI scanners, it has a vast potential clinical impact. Owing to the high tumor to background contrast, its main application areas are simple detection of tumor suspicious lesions (primary tumor, recurrence, and metastasis), tumor grading and therapy monitoring. WB-DWI has a strong diagnostic potential regarding the evaluation of bone marrow and its diseases and as thus, tumor detection and therapy monitoring of bone metastasis is of particular interest. The assessment of a lymphatic tumor spreading is constricted. One of the major hurdles that still hamper the wide clinical application of WB-DWI is a lack of standardization of measurement parameters that limit the comparability of current research results. KEY POINTS: ▶ Owing to the high tumor to background contrast WB-DWI allows fast assessment of tumor distribution and total tumor burden. ▶ WB-DWI allows therapy monitoring. ▶ WB-DWI is widely available. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.