Keywords:
Pelvis, Genital / Reproductive system female, CT, Ultrasound, Screening, Cancer
Authors:
C. Crowley, C. Houlihan, J. Barry; Cork/IE
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-3798
Aims and objectives
Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer in Ireland (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) and the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths.1 The Irish National Cancer Control Programme recently published a national clinical guideline on the diagnosis and staging of ovarian cancer.2 Based on the most up-to-date literature available,
this guideline recommends using the International Ovarian Tumour Analysis (IOTA) Group Simple Ultrasound Rules (Table 1) in conjunction with clinical assessment to determine if an adnexal lesion identified on ultrasound is suspicious for malignancy and thus requires further work-up.2,
3 Where there are only B-features in relation to an adnexal lesion on ultrasound,
the lesion is considered benign; where there are only M-features,
it is considered malignant; and,
where there is a mixture of B-features and M-features,
the lesion is considered suspicious.
Given many adnexal lesions are first identified on computed tomography (CT),
having CT-based criteria on which to predict the risk of malignancy in such cases would be beneficial,
rather than having to refer these patients subsequently for ultrasound.
The purpose of this study was to investigate if the IOTA M-Rules can be applied to CT in order to assess the malignancy potential of adnexal lesions.