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Abstract #4770

Prostate MRS in the Presence of Gold Seed Fiducial Markers

Ralph Noeske1, Beat Werner2, Charlie Ma3, Murshed Hossain3, Mark Buyyounouski3, Timo Schirmer4

1Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Potsdam, Germany; 2Kinderspital Zurich, Switzerland; 3Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA, United States; 4Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Germany


MR Spectroscopy (MRS) has great potential for guiding radiotherapy of prostate cancer by identifying bulky and/or high grade tumors suitable for dose escalation. However, image guided therapy typically employs permanently implanted gold seed fiducial markers (GSFM) which aid in daily prostate localization prior to treatment. The impact of GSFM on the quality of MRS is unknown. This phantom study presents the potential impact of GSFM on the quality of 1H MRS data. Signal drops in the vicinity of GSFM up to 47% were observed. Further investigation will show if advanced processing tools allow evaluation of areas with larger signal drops.