Imaging Recommendations for Diagnosis, Staging, and Management of Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally and the second most common cancer in Indian women, more common in lower socioeconomic strata. Improvement in survival and decrease in morbidity reflect the earlier detection with screening and imaging, as well as multifactorial multimodality therapy integrating surgery, and concurrent chemoradiation therapy providing superior therapeutic benefits. Imaging plays a vital role in assessing the extent of disease and staging of cervical cancer. The appropriateness criteria of a modality are different from its availability based on infrastructure, medical facilities, and resource status. Although in an ideal situation, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) would be of greatest value in locoregional assessment of extent of disease and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography-computed tomography for distant staging; often, an ultrasonography, chest radiograph, and bone scans are utilized, with contrast-enhanced computed tomography representing a fair superior diagnostic accuracy, and can be reported as per the RECIST 1.1 criteria. MRI is also of good utility in the assessment of residual disease, predicting response and detecting small volume recurrence. MRI offers the highest diagnostic accuracy in determining parametrial invasion and hence surgical planning; so also, MRI-guided radiation planning helps in more accurate graded radiation dose planning in radiation therapy. Stage and therapy-based surveillance imaging should be encouraged and recommended.