Diffusion-weighted MRI for Radiation Therapy Planning of lung cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Diffusion-weighted MRI for Individualised Radiation Therapy Planning of Lung Cancer
IRAS ID
201281
Contact name
James Powell
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Velindre NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Unfortunately more than a third of patients with lung cancer present with locally advanced disease. The best treatment for patients with this type of lung cancer, providing they are fit enough, is high dose radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy. Tumours occurring in or near the middle of the chest often cause blockage to air entering the lung causing part of the lung to collapse or become infected. Computerised tomography (CT) scans are the main scans used to see how advanced a lung cancer is. However, infection, tumours and other changes may all appear as dense shadows on CT scans and telling the difference between these can be difficult. Being accurate about the size and position of the tumour is important for clinical staging (to tell how advanced it is), and telling the difference between tumour and infection is important for deciding where to take a sample (biopsy), deciding which areas need radiotherapy and seeing how well treatment has worked.
Recent advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), including the development of new functional methods such as diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI), have been investigated in lung lesions. Some researchers have found that this type of scan can help tell which part of the scan shows tumour rather than collapsed lung or infection.
This study aims to see whether this new type of scan may be helpful in patients with lung cancer receiving high doses of radiotherapy.REC name
Wales REC 1
REC reference
16/WA/0199
Date of REC Opinion
22 Aug 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion