Ivan Pedrosa1, Philip Robson1, Rupal Bhatt2, David McDermott2, Michael B. Atkins2, David Alsop1
1Department of Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA; 2Department of Medicine, Division Hematology-Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA
Six patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) underwent arterial spin labeling (ASL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before and 1 week after initiation of therapy with sorafenib and bevacizumab. Mean tumor perfusion at 1 week into therapy (80 64 ml/100 g/min) was significantly lower than the tumor perfusion at baseline (176 107 ml/100 g/min)(p=0.02, paired t-test) whereas there was no significant decrease in measured tumor size at 1 week (p=0.06, paired t-test). ASL MRI detects changes in the vascularity of RCC metastasis as soon as 1 week into therapy with sorafenib and bevacizumab.