Xia Li1, Lori R. Arlinghaus1, E.
Brian Welch1, A. Bapsi Chakravarthy1, Lei Xu1,
Jaime Farley1, Ingrid Mayer1, Mark Kelley1,
Ingrid Meszoely1, Julie Means-Powell1, Vandana Abramson1,
Ana Grau1, Mia Levy1, John C. Gore1, Thomas
E Yankeelov1
1Vanderbilt
The response of breast tumors to chemotherapy is currently monitored by frank changes in tumor morphology. Unfortunately, it is difficult to quantify and often does not correlate with tumor activity. DCE-MRI can offer information related to tumor perfusion and permeability, vascular volume, and extravascular extracellular volume fraction. In this study, we use the extended Tofts model to return estimates on these parameters during neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients. We found a strong relationship among the early change in Ktrans and residual tumor burden, as well as the change in the enhancing volume of tumor tissue at conclusion of therapy.
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