This application is in response to RFA 88-CA-02, which proposes expansion of the ongoing National Collaborative Diagnostic Imaging Trials Project. We have organized a group of institutions to form the Radiologic Diagnostic Oncology Group (RDOG). This institution is a part of that group. The collaborative group will be designed to provide a means whereby efficacy studies on new diagnostic imaging tests can be instituted in a timely fashion and whereby data can be analyzed in an accurate manner. Under the auspices of an operations center and statistical and data management group, we will establish an ongoing mechanism to: optimize image quality across all participating sites; obtain consistent and complete data across participating sites; create a film library to allow derivative studies in subsequent years; and analyze imaging data for clinical effectiveness and potential algorithm development using appropriate analytic techniques. The techniques employed for analysis will be state-of-the-art involving receiver operating characteristic curve analyses; special care will be taken to ensure correction for a number of biases that might preclude accurate data analyses. The application addresses the staging of both pancreatic and colorectal cancer. The absolute value of CT, MRI and ultrasound in the staging and follow-up patients with pancreatic carcinoma will be determined; the incremental value of MRI over CT will also be assessed. For staging colorectal cancer the accuracy of CT, MRI, and transrectal ultrasound will be determined in both absolute and incremental ways. In the evaluation of both local tumor recurrence and metastatic disease in these patients, the absolute and incremental value of MRI over CT will also be assessed.
