The Canadian Cancer Society estimates that 18,800 Canadian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003; 4,200 will die. The accuracy of MRS and MRI used in combination to stage localized prostate cancer is better than that of MRI alone, though the improvement seems to be modest. There is no information available on its effect on patient management or clinical outcomes. The use of superparamagnetic contrast material has been shown to increase the accuracy of MRI for lymph node metastases in prostate cancer. Improvements in the performance of MRI in imaging local prostatic disease might influence the potential usefulness of MRS as an additional test.