E.G.W. ter Voert1, L. Heijmen2, C.J.A. Punt2, A. Heerschap1, H.W.M. van Laarhoven2
1Radiology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Gelderland, Netherlands; 2Medical Oncology, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Gelderland, Netherlands
Fifty percent of the patients with colorectal cancer develop distant metastases, mainly in the liver. Early response monitoring is desirable as only a subset of patients responds to the potentially toxic and expensive systemic treatment. The aim of this study is to predict response to systemic treatment in patients with colorectal liver metastases using pre-treatment measurements of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and the T2*. The preliminary results indicate, after analyzing 79 lesions in 25 patients, that high pre-treatment ADC values and possibly low pre-treatment T2* values in tumor tissue predict good treatment outcome.