Radiologist and multidisciplinary team clinician opinions on the quality of MRI rectal cancer staging reports: how are we doing?

Aim: To evaluate the current opinion of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reports amongst specialist clinicians involved in colorectal cancer multidisciplinary teams (CRC MDTs).

Materials And Methods: Active participants at 16 UK CRC MDTs across a population of 5.7 million were invited to complete a questionnaire, this included 22 closed and three open questions. Closed questions used ordinal (Likert) scales to judge the subjective inclusion of tumour descriptors and impressions on the clarity and consistency of the MRI report. Open (free-text) questions allowed overall feedback and suggestions.

Results: A total of 69 participants completed the survey (21 radiologists and 48 other CRC MDT clinicians). Both groups highlighted that reports commonly omit the status of the circumferential resection margin (CRM; 83% versus 81% inclusion, other clinicians and radiologists, respectively, p>0.05), presence or absence of extra-mural venous invasion (EMVI; 67% versus 57% inclusion, p>0.05), and lymph node status (90% inclusion in both groups). Intra-radiologist agreement across MRI examinations is reported as 75% by other clinicians. Free-text comments included suggestions for template-style reports.

Conclusion: Both groups recognise a proportion of MRI reports are suboptimal with key tumour descriptors omitted. There are also concerns around the presentation style of MRI reports and inter- and intra-radiologist report variability. The widespread implementation of standardised report templates may improve completeness and clarity of MRI reports for rectal cancer and thus clinical management and outcomes in rectal cancer.