Mariska P. Luttje1, Catalina S. Arteaga de Castro1, Marco van Vulpen1, Alie Borren1, Jan J.W. Lagendijk1, Peter R. Luijten1, Dennis W.J. Klomp1, Uulke A. van der Heide2
1Imaging Division, University Medical Center, Utrecht, Netherlands; 2The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Hypoxia is an important marker for the resistance of cancerous tissue to both radiotherapy and chemotherapy. By using MRI, R2* (1/T2*) can be measured, correlated with the pO2 in prostate tissue. We investigated the use of R2* mapping at 3T. In addition, feasibility of R2* mapping has been investigated at 7T, while taking care of significant susceptibility effects. In all patients tumor regions had lower R2* values than the surrounding healthy prostate tissue. Higher fields strengths with susceptibility matching are expected to bring the R2* values closer to the intrinsic tissue R2*, which may improve correlation to pO2.