Abstract #0761

Walker-Samuel S, Collins D, Leach M, Taylor N, Padhani A

Response to treatment of cancer is usually assessed using DCE-MRI by either evaluating the change in the fit to a whole-tumour averaged uptake curve or by the change in summary statistics such as mean, median, etc. following pixel-by-pixel analysis. This study aimed to assess the relative sensitivity of each approach using simulations of heterogeneous tumour enhancement and spatially heterogeneous response. It is shown that median and mean measurements are more sensitive to change than whole-tumour fitting but that neither approach reflects the known, localised therapeutic response.