The Incremental Value of Contrast-Enhanced MRI in the Detection of Biopsy-Proven Local Recurrence of Prostate Cancer After Radical Prostatectomy: Effect of Reader Experience

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study is to retrospectively assess the incremental value of contrast-enhanced MRI (CE-MRI) to T2-weighted MRI in the detection of postsurgical local recurrence of prostate cancer by readers of different experience levels, using biopsy as the reference standard. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Fifty-two men with biochemical recurrence after prostatectomy underwent 1.5-T endorectal MRI with multiphase contrast-enhanced imaging and had biopsy within 3 months of MRI. Two radiologists (reader 1 had 1 year and reader 2 had 6 years of experience) independently reviewed each MRI study and classified the likelihood of recurrent cancer on a 5-point scale. Areas under receiver operating characteristic curves (Az) were calculated to assess readers’ diagnostic performance with T2-weighted MRI alone and combined with CE-MRI. Interobserver agreement was assessed using Cohen kappa statistics. RESULTS. Thirty-three patients (63%) had biopsy-proven local recurrence of prostate cancer. With the additio...