Imaging Modalities for Preoperative Staging of Rectal Cancer in Developing Countries : A Comparative Study of F-FDG PET/CT And MRI
Rectal cancer represents a significant healthcare challenge globally, demanding accurate pre-operative staging to guide therapeutic interventions and prognostic estimations. This study aims to compare the efficacy and use of F-FDG PET/CT and MRI in preoperative staging of rectal cancer in developing countries such as india. Using a cross-sectional study design, a total of 70 patients diagnosed with rectal cancer were prospectively enrolled and equally divided Into group A and group B. For group A f- fdg PET/CT and for group B MRI was conducted. The primary outcome measures were accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of each imaging modality in detecting local tumor extent (T stage), lymph node involvement (N stage), and distant metastasis (M stage). Histopathological biopsy was taken for each patient and considered as reference standard. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and diagnostic accuracy measures.