Chen XL, et al. - Among 50 consecutive patients with rectal cancer who had radical surgery within 1 week of MRI, researchers ascertained if MR volumetric data on DW and T2-weighted MR images were associated with lymphovascular invasion and lymph node metastases. Using univariate, multivariate, and ROC curve analyses, the gross tumor volume was determined on both diffusion-weighted and T2-weighted MR images and correlated with pathologic lymphovascular invasion and lymph node metastases. According to this retrospective study, both gross tumor volume values exhibited relationships with lymphovascular invasion and lymph node metastases. Investigators found that tumor volumetry data in resectable rectal cancer correlated with both lymphovascular invasion and metastasis of the lymph node. In particular, the gross tumor volume based on DWI showed the greatest potential for non-invasive preoperative evaluation of lymphovascular invasion and metastasis of lymph nodes.