Bone marrow cancer can be identified using MRI says study

A new study says bone marrow cancer can be identified effectively using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). The study can prove to be a breakthrough one and may change the way the disease is diagnosed.

Bone marrow cancer (myelofibrosis) is a slow evolving condition hallmarked by increased myeloid cells and in the case of primary myelofibrosis, with an excessive number of large bone marrow cells called megakaryocytes.

Currently, diagnosis for bone marrow is made through an invasive bone marrow biopsy and histophatology to assess cellularity and reticulin deposition in the marrow.

But now with advancement of technology, the researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) in the US designed and tested whether a T2-weighted MRI, one of the basic pulse sequences in MRI, could detect bone marrow fibrosis in an experimental model.

The team was able to manifest that an MRI could detect a pre-fibrotic state of the disease with a clear bright signal.

According to researchers, this is the first study to evaluate a T2-weighted MRI in an experimental model of myelofibrosis with examination of potential sources of the MRI signal. The study was published in the journal Blood Cancer.