Imaging can predict brain tumor mortality

ANN ARBOR, Mich., April 20 (UPI) -- U.S. cancer scientists say they have created an imaging technique that predicts brain tumor mortality by analyzing changes in a tumor's blood flow.

The technique created by researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center uses a standard magnetic resonance imaging protocol to monitor changes over time in tumor blood volume within individual voxels -- three-dimensional analogues of pixels -- rather than a composite view of average change within the tumor. That "parametric response map" allows scientists to see specific areas in which tumor blood volume increased or decreased, that may have canceled each other when looking at the changes as an average.

"What we have potentially is a generalized analytical approach that we can use to quantify treatment intervention in patients," said study author Professor Brian Ross.

Assistant Professor Craig Galban added: "We're seeing treatment response earlier into the treatment, and responses that couldn't be detected at all looking at average changes. We could detect this after just one week, which is amazing for brain tumors."

The research is reported in the advance online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.