Hyunki Kim1,2, Karri Folks1, Lingling Guo3, James George3, Yanhui Sun4, Kurt Zinn1
1Radiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA; 2Biomedical Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA; 3Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA; 4Biostatistics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA
We performed sequential DCE-MRI every 24 hours over 3 days, detecting significantly lower Ktrans levels in breast tumors responsive to anti-DR5 antibody, anti-VEGF antibody, and combination therapies. Sequential DCE-MRI may provide a sufficient number of data points to enable non-linear mathematical modeling for vascular permeability changes; the non-linear characteristics could be considered as a time-independent imaging biomarker. Further, the novel technique of localizing the tumor region of interest to a 0.5-mm peripheral region enhances Ktrans quantification accuracy markedly and can be translated to clinical trials immediately. The proposed techniques may be utilized to improve Personalized Medicine during breast-tumor preoperative therapy.