Yang Guo1, Ning Jin1,2, Rachel
Klein1, Guang-Yu Yang3, Reed Omary1,2,
Andrew Larson1,2
1Department of Radiology, Northwestern
University, Chicago, IL, United States; 2Department of Biomedical
Engineering , Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States; 3Department
of Pathology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, United States
Assessment
of tumor necrosis is important for evaluating tumor treatment response.
Gas-challenge (GC) blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) MRI may permit tissue
characterization without the need for exogenous contrast agents. For our
study, we tested the feasibility of using GC-BOLD MRI to assess tumor
necrosis fraction and compare to reference standard histological measurements
in a rodent N1-S1 hepatoma model and found a significant positive correlation
between gold-standard histology and GC-BOLD measured necrotic fraction.
GC-BOLD MRI might serve as a non-invasive surrogate for early assessment of
therapy response (prior to conventional anatomic size changes).