Abstract #0500

Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Response to PI3-Kinase/mTOR Inhibition Studied in Human Ovarian Cancer Xenografts

Jana Cebulla¹, Siver A. Moestue¹, Else Marie Huuse¹, Geir Bjrky², Tone Frost Bathen¹, Ingrid Susann Gribbestad¹

¹Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway; ²Department of Technology, University College of Sr-Trndelag (HiST), Trondheim, Norway

The PI3-Kinase pathway is often upregulated in cancer cells and is therefore a promising target for anticancer therapy. This novel treatment strategy induces a need for biomarkers that can non-invasively and repeatedly assess therapy response. In this study we used diffusion weighted MRI to evaluate changes in the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) caused by PI3-kinase/mTOR inhibition in ovarian tumor xenografts. For responding tumors we found a significant increase in median ADC values and a decrease in kurtosis and skewness of ADC histograms, suggesting that these parameters are promising candidates for clinical biomarkers for PI3-Kinase/mTOR inhibition.