Magnetic resonance imaging in cervical carcinoma: diagnosis, staging, and follow-up.

Clinicians have long looked for an imaging modality that can provide accurate and useful information on cervical carcinoma. In the past 10 years, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has come to play an important role in evaluating patients with this disease before treatment and in monitoring them afterward. Before treatment, MRI can accurately depict tumor size (volume) and extension. MRI thus has the potential to supplant the traditional clinical International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) staging system for this disease, which is based on clinical findings and is inherently subjective. Promising areas of research include endorectal, endovaginal, and phased-array coils.