Nkiruka C. Atuegwu1, Daniel C. Colvin1,
Mary E. Loveless1,2, Lei Xu3, John C. Gore1,4,
Thomas E. Yankeelov1,4
1Institute of Imaging
Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; 2Biomedical
Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; 3Biostatistics,
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States; 4Radiology,
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States
Sequential diffusion weighted MRI (DW-MRI) data of 13 Fischer rats implanted with 9L tumors were incorporated into a mathematical model of tumor growth and treatment response. 8 rats were treated with the chemotherapy drug BCNU and 5 rats were tumor bearing controls. DW-MRI data at early time points were used to extract the proliferation rates of each tumor and was then used to calculate the number of cells at a later time point. The calculated and experimentally estimated number of cells were then compared.