Yifat Edrei1,2, Eitan Gross3, Natalie Corchia1, Eli Pikarsky4, Shmuel Ben-Sasson5, Rinat Abramovitch1,2
1The Goldyne Savad Inst. for Gene Therapy, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel; 2MRI/MRS lab HBRC, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel; 3Pediatric Surgery, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel; 4Department of Pathology, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel; 5Experimental Medicine & Cancer research, The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel
The ability to detect early effects of tumor therapeutic-response could facilitate therapy-continuation decisions. Since anti-angiogenic therapy may not lead to substantial tumor-mass reduction, conventional tumor-size measurements may be insensitive. Recently, we demonstrated the feasibility of Hemodynamic Response Imaging (HRI; fMRI combined with hypercapnia and hyperoxia) for monitoring liver perfusion. We assessed the therapeutic effects of a novel anti-angiogenic therapy in colorectal-liver-metastases model by HRI. The treatment reduced tumor growth, but, it induced a change in the growth-morphology which was reflected in HRI maps. Thus, HRI offers a new method for monitoring anti-angiogenic therapy-response and may facilitate detection of tumor deterioration.