Abstract #0762

Buckley D, Logue J, Kershaw L, Hutchinson C

The purpose of this study was to assess the vascular and MR relaxation characteristics of the prostate gland in response to radiotherapy. Twenty-two patients were studied before and one year after radiotherapy using T1 and T2 mapping, dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI and a distributed parameter tracer kinetic model. Following treatment tumor perfusion was significantly reduced and the permeability of microvessels in nearby muscle increased. Pre-treatment measures of tumor T2 and relative perfusion were found to differ between responders and non-responders.