Sodium-Diffusion MRI of Emerging Drug Resistance in Rat Glioma Model

Victor D. Schepkin¹, Thomas Morgan², Shannon Gower-Winter², Petr L. Gor'kov¹, William W. Brey¹, Cathy W. Levenson²

Tumor progression, especially after therapeutic intervention, increases tumor resistance to therapies; consequently, it requires a much higher concentration of a chemotherapeutic drug to achieve the same response, otherwise success may not be feasible. In gliomas sodium concentration and diffusion are usually higher than normal brian and its variations demonstrate an attractive correlation with glioma drug resistance. The hypothesis is that the increased tumor resistance is determined by a more efficient energy metabolism which can be detected by the corresponding decrease of glioma sodium concentration or even diffusion; thus, MRI can noninvasively reveal emerging tumor drug resistance before therapy.