THE ROLE OF 1.5 TESLA MRI AND MDCT IN THE PREOPERATIVE STAGING OF EARLY-STAGE GLOTTIC CANCER

his study evaluates the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) in assessing anterior commissure, paraglottic space and laryngeal cartilage invasion in early-stage glottic cancer (Tis-T2). Materials and methods.A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted at Hanoi Oncology Hospital between January 2022 and November 2024, involving 31 patients with early-stage glottic cancer.The diagnostic protocol included laryngoscopy, MRI, MDCT, preoperative biopsy, tumor resection, and histopathological analysis.Three independent radiologists assessed MRI, MDCT and combined MRI-MDCT images.The diagnostic performance of these imaging modalities was compared with postoperative histopathological findings.Results.For invasion assessment MRI and combined MRI-MDCT demonstrated superior sensitivity, accuracy, negative predictive value (NPV) and agreement with histopathology compared to MDCT alone (Se, Ac, NPV: 100%, 90.9-96.77%,100% vs. 60-66.67%,90.3-93.55%,88.0-92.95%;Kappa: 0.80-0.89vs. 0.72-0.76).However, MDCT exhibited higher specificity and positive predictive value (Sp,).For T-stage classification, MRI and MRI-MDCT achieved greater accuracy than MDCT (80.65% vs. 70.97%)and demonstrated stronger agreement with histopathology (Kappa: 0.71 vs. 0.54).Notably, MRI and MRI-MDCT tended to overstage tumors (16.13%), whereas MDCT more frequently understaged them (25.81%).Conclusion.MRI exhibits superior sensitivity in assessing invasion and T staging of early-stage glottic cancer compared to MDCT.Combining MRI with MDCT enhances diagnostic accuracy and agreement with histopathology, particularly in evaluating thyroid cartilage involvement.