Yi Feng1,2, Eun-Kee Jeong3, Lyska Emerson4, Zheng-Rong Lu5
1Drug Developement, Nevada Cancer Institute, Las Vegas, NV, USA; 2University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; 3Radiology, University of Utah; 4Pathology, University of Utah; 5Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Utah
Biodegradable macromolecular contrast agents (BMCA) alleviate the high Gd(III) retention problem of macromolecular contrast agents by in vivo degradation while retaining their advantages over small molecular weight contrast agent in tumor imaging. Tumor bearing mice were treated by photothermal therapy enhanced by intratumoral injection of indocyanine green and subjected to DCE-MRI scan using (Gd-DTPA)-cystamine copolymers (GDCC, a BMCA) and Gd-(DTPA-BMA). Tumor vasculature parameters (two-compartment model) using GDCC significantly dropped 4 hr after treatment and returned to normal 7 days later. Parameters using Gd-(DTPA-BMA) were too high. GDCC is promising in timely and accurately evaluation of anti-cancer treatment using DCE-MRI.