Combining DCE-MRI and DCE-Ultrasound: A Novel Pre-Clinical Imaging Protocol for Assessing Cancer Treatment Efficacy

Firas Moosvi¹, ², Ahmed El-Kaffas¹, ², Melissa Yin¹, Greg Stanisz¹, ²

Assessing the efficacy of novel cancer therapies non-invasively remains an important goal in imaging research. DCE-MRI provides some useful information about the tumour microenvironment including vessel leakiness and extravascular extracellular volume, but falls short when determining parameters such as blood volume and flow. One approach is to combine DCE-MRI with a modality that is sensitive to blood flow and blood volume such as DCE-Ultrasound. This abstract describes a pilot pre-clinical study using a novel imaging protocol combining DCE-MRI and DCE-US to assess the tumour microenvironment after therapy.