Gregory Z. Ferl1, Michel Friesenhahn2, Lisa J. Bernstein2, Daniel P. Barboriak3, Ruediger E. Port1
1Early Development PKPD, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA; 2Nonclinical Biostatistics, Genentech, Inc., South San Francisco, CA, USA; 3Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
A non-parametric method for the analysis of dynamic contrast enhanced MRI data is described here, where assumption of a particular compartmental structure is not required. Pre- and post-treatment scans taken from glioblastoma patients were analyzed, where deconvolution of the input signal (venous tracer concentration) and the output signal (tumor time activity curve) yielded the tumor impulse response function (IRF) for each scan. Area under the curve of the IRF decreases significantly one day after start of treatment. Mean residence time of the tracer molecule can also be calculated based on the IRF and is approximately constant for each patient.