Comparison of Diagnostic Accuracy for TNM Stage Among Whole-Body MRI and Coregistered PET/MRI Using 1.5-T and 3-T MRI Systems and Integrated PET/CT for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

The purpose of this study was to compare diagnostic accuracy of TNM stage for whole-body MRI and coregistered PET/MRI using 1.5-T and 3-T MRI systems and PET/CT in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A total of 104 patients with pathologically diagnosed NSCLC underwent whole-body MRI at 1.5 T and 3T and integrated PET/CT, as well as a combination of surgical, pathologic, or follow-up examinations. Whole-body MR images obtained by the five sequences were combined with the PET part of the PET/CT using proprietary software for the PET/MRI studies. The TNM stage obtained with all methods was visually assessed. Kappa statistics were used to determine agreement between TNM stage assessment and final diagnoses, and the McNemar test was used to compare diagnostic accuracy of all methods. Findings of TNM stage on whole-body MRI using 3-T (κ, 0.87; < 0.0001) and 1.5-T (κ, 0.83; < 0.0001) systems and for coregistered PET/MRI using a 3-T system (PET/MRI ; κ, 0.85; < 0.0001) were rated as significant and almost perfect, and findings for coregistered PET/MRI using a 1.5-T system (PET/MRI ; κ, 0.80; < 0.0001) and PET/CT (κ, 0.73; < 0.0001) were rated significant and substantial. Diagnostic accuracy of whole-body MRI using the 3-T system was 88.5% (92/104; = 0.0002, and using the 1.5-T system it was 84.6% (88/104; = 0.004); results for PET/MRI and PET/MRI were 86.5% (90/104; = 0.001) and 81.7% (85/104; = 0.03), respectively, which were both significantly better than accuracy of results for PET/CT at 76.0% (79/104). Moreover, diagnostic accuracy of whole-body MRI using a 3-T system was significantly higher than that of PET/MRI using a 1.5-T system ( = 0.02). Whole-body MRI and coregistered PET/MRI using 3-T and 1.5-T systems are as accurate or more accurate than PET/CT, whereas differences between 3-T and 1.5-T MRI systems are not considered significant.