Molecular MR Imaging of Fibrin in Tumors

Ritika Uppal¹, Zdravka Medarova¹, Christian Farrar¹, Guangping Dai¹, Anna Moore¹, Peter Caravan¹

The composition of tumor stroma strongly resembles the granulation tissue of healing skin wounds. The fact that cross-linked fibrin is widely found in the stroma of tumors presents the possibility of using a fibrin-targeted contrast agent to characterize tumors. We used a fibrin-specific Gd based agent (EP-2104R) and nonspecific GdDTPA to characterize a breast cancer xenograft mouse model. Dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) imaging of the tumor core was similar with both agents. However, the enhancement of the tumor periphery persisted over 90 min after injection of EP-2104R, whereas GdDTPA enhanced periphery showed rapid signal washout.