Leanne Katherine Bell1, Davina Honess1, Dominick McIntyre1, David Tuveson2, John Griffiths1
1Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy, Cambridge Research Institute, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom; 2Tumour Modelling and Experimental Medicine (Pancreatic Cancer), Cambridge Research Institute, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDA) is a lethal disease with minimally effective treatments available. The genetically engineered KPC mouse develops spontaneous PDA in situ, recapitulating the genetic, molecular and pathological aspects of the human disease, including its dense desmoplastic tumour stroma. In contrast, transplanted mouse PDA has minimal stroma. Comparing these tumour types shows that Magnetisation Transfer MRI, specifically Magnetisation Transfer Ratio (MTR), can distinguish between differing stromal contents. We conclude that MTR is an effective in vivo biomarker for assessing macromolecular content and preliminary data suggest it may be valuable in assessing tumour stromal changes in a therapeutic setting.