Jessica K. R. Boult1, Lara Perryman2, 3, Alexa Jury2, 3, Gary Box3, Paola Porcari1, 4, Sergey Popov2, 3, Suzanne A. Eccles3, Chris Jones2, 3, Simon P. Robinson1
1CRUK and EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre, The Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom; 2Division of Molecular Pathology, The Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom; 3CRUK Cancer Therapeutics Unit, The Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom; 4Physics Department, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Delineation of diffuse infiltrative gliomas, in which the blood brain barrier remains intact, using conventional Gd-DTPA-enhanced MRI can be problematic. We aimed to develop a model of diffuse infiltrative brain tumours and to interrogate it using a multiparametric MRI approach. Primary paediatric glioblastoma xenografts presented with a diffuse growth pattern, clinically relevant observations on T2-weighted and FLAIR images, and demonstrated no signal change following Gd-DTPA or USPIO administration. Areas of invasion in MDA-MB-231 tumours in the brain correlated with regions of low fBV and Gd-DTPA-induced ΔR1. These tumours represent an ideal platform for evaluating novel therapeutics targeted towards invasive disease.