Abstract #2931

Stambuk H, Shukla-Dave A, Karimi S, Su Y, Pfister D, Wang Y, Koutcher J, Lee N

Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) is the fifth most common malignancy in the world and the survival rates have remained relatively unchanged over the past 3 decades. Today with many treatment options available, it is important to have an a priori method to stratify good risk and poor risk categories to improve outcome and quality of life. The present study was designed to assess whether pretreatment DCE-MRI changes can reliably predict response. DCE-MRI was performed in 17 patients prior to chemo-radiation therapy. The initial results suggest that DCE-MRI may prove to be a useful a priori predictor of response in HNSCC patients.