Rami R. Hallac1,
Bishoy A. Gayed2, Qing Yuan1, Ramy F. Youssef2,
Yao Ding1, Franto Francis3, Claus Roehrborn2,
Ganesh Raj2, Robert D. Sims1, Ralph Peter Mason1
1Radiology,
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 2Urology,
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 3Pathology,
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States
Oxygen sensitive MRI may provide insights into tumor characteristics. We evaluated the changes in MR contrast and R2* of human prostate cancer in patients accompanying oxygen breathing challenge at 3T MR and correlated observations with resected pathological specimens. BOLD MRI revealed vastly different R2* values between patient tumors, but remarkable similarity to the prostate itself. A strong correlation was found between baseline R2* and Gleason score. We believe these preliminary results warrant further testing as to how R2* and its response to oxygenbreathing challenge correlate with location, pathology, and potentially staging of tumors.