Potential of surface-coil MRI for staging of esophageal cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of external surface-coil MRI as a new method of imaging the esophagus and esophageal cancer. CONCLUSION: The results for the 10 patients investigated indicate that by using a high-resolution axial T2-weighted sequence (small field of view, thin section images), MRI provides detailed imaging of the anatomic layers of the esophageal wall and tumor. Three independent radiologists found good correlation in the morphologic appearance and extent of tumor between MRI and matched histology sections. This study illustrates the potential of the technique as an alternative form of local staging for esophageal cancer.