WB-EQ-MRI assessment of treatment response in cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Equilibrium MRI assessment of extracellular volume fraction of primary cancers and metastases – development of an imaging biomarker of treatment response.
IRAS ID
111805
Contact name
Shonit Punwani
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Joint Research Office
Research summary
Cancer will involve 1 in 2 individuals by the year 2020. Diagnosis, characterisation and differentiating between responders and non-responders at an early stage after commencement of treatment allows more appropriate treatment choice for individuals and may help reduce unnecessary expense for the NHS. However, characterisation and early response assessment remains an unmet clinical need in the evaluation of many malignancies.
To date, the criteria applied to assess response remains a poor marker of early response as change in size of tumour deposits often occurs as a late phenomenon. Alternative strategies have been suggested however these are difficult to standardise and remains questionable.
We know tumour aggressiveness and response to therapy are influenced by changes in the extracellular volume (ECV) in malignant tissue. Thus, this may be an important prognostic parameter for cancer patients undergoing treatment. Dynamic Contrast Enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) is one method of estimating ECV but has several limitations; it is difficult to achieve, can lead to inaccuracy and allows for only limited body coverage.
Equilibrium MRI (EQ-MRI) is a recently developed technique that gives a MRI signal proportional to extracellular volume (ECV) of the tissue. We have developed a new protocol allowing the whole-body EQ-MRI to be clinically trialled and compared to tissue results and the current gold-standard in clinical imaging.
We hypothesize that changes in ECV will precede and predict the current standard; thereby providing a biomarker for early response assessment. Moreover, we foresee that EQ-MRI ECV assessment could have significant application for early assessment of response for a multitude of tumour types to newer anti-angiogenic treatments. This trial aims to refine the technique, develop optimal protocols using computer modelling and calibrate results to tissue samples. The study will then recruit across a number of cancer populations to demonstrate clinical application and comparison to the gold standard.
REC name
London - Chelsea Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/0758
Date of REC Opinion
2 Jul 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion