Can Contrast MRI Detect Precancerous Tissue?

[back2health]

Can a contrast MRI detect precancerous tissue in prostate gland?

[LearnAll]

Pre cancerous cells are more like normal cells than cancer cells. MRI does not detect cancer cells..it only detects lesions caused by cancer cells. So, if precancerous cells have not caused any lesions , MRI does not detect them directly.

[back2health in reply to LearnAll]

Thanks LearnAll. This, I needed to know. Helps me to understand a lot. So I now see why if someone has a steady rising PSA, but a negative MRI, their doctor may want to order a biopsy where the tissue can actually be probed into at a cellular level.

One quick Question here that's been bugging me... can the same natural compounds that are able to show efficacy against "cancer cells" also prove effective against "precancerous ones"--essentially preventing them from becoming cancerous?

[Justfor_]

A radiologist explained to me the way mpMRI works They image at 3 instances:

a) Before contrast infusion.

b) Right after contrast infusion.

c) Five to ten minutes later.

The idea behind this is that cancerous cells draw more blood compared to bening ones. Thus, more contrast is accumulated there. There is a loose relationship between GS and ADC, that is, the rate of blood draw. Consequently and because nothing in nature is binary, early stage cancerous cells must have somehow higher blood demand compared to normal ones. Whether this minuscule difference can be detected by MRI, I haven't the slightest clue.

[back2health in reply to Justfor_]

Really interesting. The chemical compound from Artemesia Annua (Sweet Wormwood), Artemisinin, works against cancer cells on the basis of them having a much bigger "appetite for iron" than normal cells. It targets such cells.

In one suggested use of Artemisinin (powerful anti-malaria agent), the user takes an iron supplement the night before to allow the "greedy cancer cells to gobble up iron." Then the next morning Artemisinin is taken to attack the cancer cells loaded with iron, while supposedly, leaving the normal cells okay.

[Tall_Allen]

Yes. That's why only a biopsy is definitive.

[back2health in reply to Tall_Allen]

But shouldn't the biopsy follow the MRI, given that the MRI allows for a broad look at prostate tissue, while the biopsy is relatively narrower?

[Tall_Allen in reply to back2health]

MpMRI is only good for finding significant PC, not for pre-cancerous.