AbMRI Vs MRI for assessing response to NACT: a pilot reader study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Abbreviated MRI vs full protocol breast MRI for assessing response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. A pilot study
IRAS ID
316772
Contact name
Sarah Savaridas
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Dundee
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
With developments in cancer treatment, increasing numbers of women with breast cancer are receiving chemotherapy before surgery, neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). The aim is to downstage inoperable locally advanced disease, to reduce the extent of surgery in both breast and axilla in women with operable disease, and for certain cancer subtypes to allow assessment of how sensitive the cancer is to chemotherapy (chemosensitivity), regardless of tumour size.
Imaging monitoring of treatment response is necessary during NACT to assess chemosensitivity and aid surgical decision making. Currently full protocol magnetic resonance imaging (fpMRI) is considered the gold-standard technique for predicting both residual tumour size and pathological complete response (pCR). Unfortunately, it is time-consuming technique to perform and report, which limits its availability in a resource-stretched NHS and can limit patient tolerability especially for women who are claustrophobic or find lying still for a prolonged time difficult.
Abbreviated-MRI (abMRI) is a technique that utilises fewer MRI sequences to produce the final study. There is not a standardised protocol, however all variations include at least one pre-contrast and two post-contrast images from which a maximum projection images (MIP) can be derived. By comparison fpMRI usually has at least seven post-contrast sequences. As a result, it is both far quicker to acquire the images and far quicker to report the imaging. Emerging evidence suggests that abMRI has similar accuracy to fpMRI for screening.
This pilot study seeks to explore whether abMRI offers an accurate alterative to fpMRI for monitoring response to NACT.REC name
South Central - Hampshire A Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/SC/0151
Date of REC Opinion
2 May 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion