Whole-Body MRI with Diffusion-Weighted Sequences for the Follow-Up of Stage III Melanoma Patients

Giuseppe Petralia¹, Sarah Alessi¹, Josep Garcia-Bennett², Paul Summers¹, Sara Raimondi¹, Roberto Di Filippi¹, Luke Bonello³, Massimo Bellomi¹, ³

Surgery is the best option for patients with advanced melanoma, who would benefit from early detection of metastases. Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI) with diffusion weighted sequences was feasible on advanced melanoma patients. It was performed with low dose computed tomography (CT) of the lung every three months, allowing for a 30 fold reduction of radiation exposure, when compared to the radiation dose that the same patients would receive if followed-up with whole-body CT. The following overall sensitivity (93%), specificity (89%), negative predictive value (99%), positive predictive value (52%) and diagnostic accuracy (90%) were observed for the detection of metastases.