Holly C. Canuto1,2, Mikko I. Kettunen1,2, Charles I. McLachlan3, Anant S. Krishnan1, Andre' A. Neves1,2, De-en Hu1, Michael P. Hobson3,4, Kevin M. Brindle1,2
1Biochemistry, The University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK; 2Cancer Research UK, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK; 3Metropolis Data Consultants, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK; 4Astrophysics, Cavendish Laboratory, The University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK
Tumor cell death following treatment is a good prognostic indicator for treatment outcome. The spatially heterogeneous nature of cell death has recently been exploited, using the morphological descriptors Minkowski Functionals, to enhance the sensitivity of detection of a MR contrast agent targeted to bind to apoptotic cells. Since tissue morphology is a very sensitive indicator of underlying tissue biology we have used 2D Minkowski Functionals to parameterize the morphological heterogeneity present in T2-weighted MR images of tumors before and after drug-treatment. We have shown that we can detect a treatment response in the absence of a contrast agent.
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