Objective To compare the diagnostic accuracy of MR (magnetic resonance) images with MSCT (multislice CT) for preoperative T-staging in patients suffering from cardiac cancer. Methods MR and MSCT were performed in 28 cases of cardiac cancer diagnosed by biopsy prior to operation. After an oral intake of 1000ml of water and an injection of hypotonic agent, MR and MSCT scan were adopted in two different days. MR sequences included FSET1W, FSET2W, FSET1W with fat suppression and dynamic enhanced FSPGR with fat suppression; MSCT was applied with dynamic triphasic contrast enhancement. All these findings were prospectively analyzed in two doctors separately and correlated with the surgery pathological findings. Statistic works were performed with SPSS. Results According to histopathologic staging, the accuracy for T1-staging detected with MR and MSCT were 88.8% and 11.1%, 77.78% and 22.20% for T2-staging, 83.33% and 32.67% for T3-staging, 100% and 50% for T4-staging, respectively. Compared with MSCT, dynamic enhanced and delayed MR with fat suppression was superior for revealing the involvement of esophagus and aorta, early stage of invasiveness and providing more evidences in T2 from T3 or T3 from T4 staging (P