Contrast-enhanced US tracks cancer response to drug therapy

Volumetric contrast-enhanced ultrasound can track positive early cancer response to systemic drug therapy, according to a presentation to be given by researchers from the University of Alabama on Sunday morning.

In an animal trial, Kenneth Hoyt, PhD, and colleagues evaluated breast cancer response to a combination TRA-8 and Abraxane therapy using volumetric contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging. The team implanted 30 mice subcutaneously with breast cancer cells; four weeks later, the mice were sorted by tumor size and assigned to one of four treatment groups: Abraxane (7), TRA-8 (8), Abraxane and TRA-8 (8), or control (7).

Hoyt's group found that all the mice except for the ones treated with TRA-8 and Abraxane showed an increase in tumor perfusion -- demonstrating that volumetric contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging identified positive early tumor responses to TRA-8 therapy.