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BMC Cancer
Published in: BMC Cancer 1/2020

01-12-2020 | Magnetic Resonance Imaging | Research article

Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) as a non-invasive, tissue cellularity marker to monitor cancer treatment response

Authors: Frederikke Petrine Fliedner, Trine Bjørnbo Engel, Henrik H. El-Ali, Anders Elias Hansen, Andreas Kjaer

Published in: BMC Cancer | Issue 1/2020

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Abstract

Background

Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) holds great potential for monitoring treatment response in cancer patients shortly after initiation of radiotherapy. It is hypothesized that a decrease in cellular density of irradiated cancerous tissue will lead to an increase in quantitative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values. DW-MRI can therefore serve as a non-invasive marker of cell death and apoptosis in response to treatment. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the applicability of DW-MRI in preclinical models to monitor radiation-induced treatment response. In addition, we compared DW-MRI with ex vivo measures of cell density, cell death and apoptosis.

Methods

DW-MRI was tested in two different syngeneic mouse models, a colorectal cancer (CT26) and a breast cancer (4 T1). ADC values were compared with quantitative determinations of apoptosis and cell death by flow cytometry. Furthermore, ADC-values were also compared to histological measurement of cell density on tumor sections.

Results

We found a significant correlation between ADC-values and apoptotic state in the CT26 model (P = 0.0031). A strong correlation between the two measurements of ADC-value and apoptotic state was found in both models, which were also present when comparing ADC-values to cell densities.

Conclusions

Our findings demonstrate that DW-MRI can be used for non-invasive monitoring of radiation-induced changes in cell state during cancer therapy. ADC values reflect ex vivo cell density and correlates well with apoptotic state, and can hereby be described as a marker for the cell state after therapy and used as a non-invasive response marker.
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Metadata
Title
Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) as a non-invasive, tissue cellularity marker to monitor cancer treatment response
Authors
Frederikke Petrine Fliedner
Trine Bjørnbo Engel
Henrik H. El-Ali
Anders Elias Hansen
Andreas Kjaer
Publication date
01-12-2020
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Cancer / Issue 1/2020
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2407
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-020-6617-x

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