Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center in Ann Arbor are using a new MRI-based analysis method to predict patient survival as early as one week after brain tumor treatment.
The method uses an MRI protocol called a parametric response map to monitor changes over time in tumor blood volume within individual image voxels, rather than a composite view of average change within the tumor.
The researchers studied 44 people with high-grade glioma who were treated with chemotherapy and radiation. Each participant underwent MRI scans before treatment and one week and three weeks after starting treatment.
Looking at standard comparisons using averages, the scans indicated no change one week and three weeks into treatment. However, using the parametric response map approach, researchers were able to show changes in the tumor's blood volume and blood flow after one week that corresponded to the patient's overall survival.
Results of the study appear in the advance online edition of Nature Medicine (April 19, 2009).
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