Ralph Noeske1, Beat Werner2,
Charlie Ma3, Murshed Hossain3, Mark Buyyounouski3,
Timo Schirmer4
1Applied Science Laboratory, GE
Healthcare, Potsdam, Germany; 2Kinderspital Zurich, Switzerland; 3Fox
Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, United States; 4Applied
Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Germany
MR
Spectroscopy (MRS) has great potential for guiding radiotherapy of prostate
cancer by identifying bulky and/or high grade tumors suitable for dose
escalation. However, image guided therapy typically employs permanently
implanted gold seed fiducial markers (GSFM) which aid in daily prostate
localization prior to treatment. The impact of GSFM on the quality of MRS is
unknown. This phantom study presents the potential impact of GSFM on the
quality of 1H MRS data. Signal drops in the vicinity of GSFM up to
47% were observed. Further investigation will show if advanced processing
tools allow evaluation of areas with larger signal drops.