Novel DCE-MRI Technique: Application to Breast Cancer

Dmitri Artemov¹, Wenlian Zhu¹, Yoshinori Kato¹

DCE-MRI is a powerful technique to detect, assess, and stage tumors. Unfortunately, quantitative measurement of tumor vascular parameters from DCE-MRI measurements is complicated by several problems including measuring arterial input function, determining contrast enhancement parameters, and modeling GdDTPA pharmacokinetics. We propose a new saturation recovery gradient echo imaging technique that can resolve some of these problems and provide a convenient way to determine quantitative vascular parameters Ktrans, kep, and ve using a standard two-compartment kinetic model. The method detected significant differences in vascular parameters measured in aggressive MDA-MB-231 and less aggressive MCF-7 human breast cancer tumor models.