The RSNA Research and Education Foundation has awarded the 2018 Hitachi Healthcare Americas/RSNA Research Seed Grant to Dr. David Shultz, PhD, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the University of Toronto.
Shultz and scientific advisor Dr. Patrick Veit-Haibach, an associate professor of molecular imaging at the University of Toronto, will use fluoroazomycin arabinoside (FAZA) PET/MRI to identify hypoxic tumors in patients with localized high-risk sarcoma. In addition, Shultz and colleagues will use pimonidazole, a molecular probe for hypoxia, to validate the FAZA results and further characterize the biologic features of hypoxic tumors.
The researchers' goal is to determine if hypoxia imaging with PET/MRI improves the management of sarcoma and to evaluate and characterize hypoxic mechanisms on a molecular level within clinical specimens.
The grant provides $40,000 in funding for a one-year project to test hypotheses and obtain pilot data to prepare for other major grant applications.
