MR Prostate Coil Customizes Treatment Planning

A new prostate coil is designed to produce very accurate magnetic resonance (MR) images for targeted prostate cancer treatment.

To enable personalized treatment planning that may reduce considerable side effects of prostate cancer treatment, Medrad (Indianola, PA, USA) and GE Healthcare (Chalfont St. Giles, UK) announce the availability of the first endorectal coil for 3.0T MR prostate imaging. The Medrad 3.0T Prostate eCoil is available for GE Signa HDx 3.0T MR scanners.

Patients diagnosed with prostate cancer frequently undergo either a radical prostatectomy, or radiation treatment over large portions of the prostate to combat the cancer. The after-effects on the patient can include impotence, urinary incontinence, and bleeding. Medrad created the 3.0T Prostate eCoil to produce very accurate diagnostic images of the prostate that may enable early diagnosis and staging of prostate cancer. The coil can also be used to plan radiation therapy in a way that helps clinicians localize treatment to only the affected part of the gland. By giving clinicians more accurate images for use in planning and delivering targeted treatment, the eCoil may help them customize the patient's treatment.

The eCoil balloon conforms to the size and shape of the prostate for consistent contact between the gland and the signal-amplifying elements of the coil. The result is small field-of-view (FOV) and high spatial resolution, sensitivity, and specificity that provide clearer images of the prostate.

John Kurhanewicz, Ph.D., director of the Prostate Imaging Group and Biomedical NMR Lab and professor of radiology and pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF; USA) School of Medicine, has noted similar results on a GE scanner. "The increased spectral dispersion obtainable at 3.0T allows for better quantification of metabolites, notably the elevation of choline resonance, which has emerged as the most specific marker for prostate cancer,” said Dr. Kurhanewicz.

The Prostate eCoil is also available for 1.5T magnet strength environments and is one of Medrad's Leading Image MR Coil products.



Related Links:
Medrad
GE Healthcare