Abstract #0677

Bronder J, Palmieri D, Mikulis D, MacKenzie L, Steeg P, Yoneda T, MacDonald I, Chambers A, Rutt B, Heyn C, Ronald J, Barry A, Ramadan S, Foster P

For breast cancer patients, metastasis to the brain is a complication associated with a poor prognosis. In this abstract, the fate of iron-oxide-labeled breast cancer cells is tracked non-invasively with MRI in a mouse model of brain metastasis. Using this technique, the distribution of single cancer cells was visualized in the entire mouse brain and the proportion of cells that were cleared, remained dormant, or grew into tumours was quantified. This work reports a substantial new capability of MRI for imaging metastasis development in a relevant model, with clear application for studying the biology and drug response of brain metastases.