Diffusion-Weighted Imaging

MRI plays a pivotal role in the management of patients with cancer, being used at every stage of the cancer patient’s journey. However, morphological assessments have substantial limitations. For example, detection of malignant lesions can often be difficult, particularly when disease burden is small and intermixed with normal tissues or benign disease processes. Lesion characterisation can be equally problematic, for example differentiating liver metastases from other solid liver lesions. Measurement-based assessments of tumour response can be limited, and detection and assessment of the activity of residual disease is often problematic. Finally, determining relapsed disease in areas of therapy-induced scarring can be complicated.