| Abstract: | Patients with colorectal cancer undergo frequent diagnostic imaging to stage the extent of metastatic disease and assess response to treatment. Imaging is typically via diagnostic contrast‐enhanced CT or combined FDG‐PET/CT. However, recent research has demonstrated promising benefits of combined FDG‐PET/MRI in oncologic imaging due to the superior soft‐tissue contrast of MRI. The extent of both intrahepatic and extrahepatic disease is important in establishing treatment options for colorectal cancer patients, and FDG‐PET/CT and dedicated liver imaging are often both required. FDG‐PET/MRI offers the advantage of a single examination which can be completed within a similar duration as dedicated liver MRI imaging. This improves patient convenience and anatomical co‐registration between PET and MRI imaging and provides a potential cost benefit. The diagnostic benefits of FDG‐PET/MRI include the simultaneous characterisation of focal liver lesions, exclusion of extrahepatic disease, the detection of additional hepatic metastases and extrahepatic disease, and the multi‐parametric assessment of treatment response. This pictorial review highlights examples of these benefits. |
