Deborah K. Hill1, Erika Mariotti2, Matthew R. Orton1, Jessica K. R. Boult1, Yann Jamin1, Simon P. Robinson1, Nada M. S. Al-Saffar1, Martin O. Leach1, Yuen-Li Chung1, Thomas R. Eykyn1, 2
1CRUK and EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre, Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging, The Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom; 2The Rayne Institute, Lambeth Wing, St Thomas Hospital, London, United Kingdom
While Dynamic Nuclear Polarisation is revolutionising the use of 13C MRS for real-time interrogation of metabolism, the complexity of the associated kinetic modelling used to extract rate constants for pyruvate-lactate exchange as a treatment biomarker lessens the immediate usefulness of the technique. We present a model-free approach to assessing treatment response in a range of cell lines, and show sensitivity to treatment response comparable to, yet much simpler in implementation than, kinetic modelling based on the modified Bloch equations.