Researchers believe that they may be able to use MRI scans to tell if fractures of the bones in the spine are due to cancer. They believe this can be done by looking at MRIs of diffusion (the random motion of molecules) and fat. For benign and malignant processes, either diffusion or fat, or both of them, can be different, because the cell density (which affects diffusion) and bone marrow content (which affects fat) are expected to be different.