A Quantitative Mri Study Of Prostate Cancer Before And After Radiation Therapy

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of external beam radiation on the prostate and prostate cancer using novel quantitative MRI techniques. Twenty-two men, previously diagnosed with prostate cancer, were studied using T1 and T2 relaxation mapping and contrast agent kinetic methods before and after treatment by radiotherapy. The MRI findings will be correlated with biochemical (prostate specific antigen) progression and biopsy results. All 22 patients have been recruited and studied pre-treatment. So far nineteen patients have returned for follow-up MRI. The data is both complete and of a high quality. Data analysis of the pre-treatment phase has provided important and novel information about the microvascular characteristics of prostate cancer. These results have been accepted for publication in the leading radiology journal. Preliminary analysis of the post- treatment data is promising and awaits clinical interpretation.

Modern medical imaging and radiation therapy technologies are so complex and computer driven that it is difficult for physicians and technologists to know exactly what is happening at the point-of-care. Medical physicists responsible for filling this gap in knowledge must stay abreast of the latest advances at the intersection of medical imaging and radiation therapy. This book provides medical physicists and radiation oncologists current and relevant information on Adaptive Radiation Therapy (ART), a state-of-the-art approach that uses a feedback process to account for patient-specific anatomic and/or biological changes, thus delivering highly individualized radiation therapy for cancer patients. The book should also benefit medical dosimetrists and radiation therapists. Adaptive Radiation Therapy describes technological and methodological advances in the field of ART, as well as initial clinical experiences using ART for selected anatomic sites. Divided into three sections (radiobiological basis, current technologies, and clinical applications), the book covers: Morphological and biological biomarkers for patient-specific planning Design and optimization of treatment plans Delivery of IMRT and IGRT intervention methodologies of ART Management of intrafraction variations, particularly with respiratory motion Quality assurance needed to ensure the safe delivery of ART ART applications in several common cancer types / anatomic sites The technology and methodology for ART have advanced significantly in the last few years and accumulated clinical data have demonstrated the need for ART in clinical settings, assisted by the wide application of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). This book shows the real potential for supplying every patient with individualized radiation therapy that is maximally accurate and precise.

Propelling quantitative MRI techniques from bench to bedside, Quantitative MRI in Cancer presents a range of quantitative MRI methods for assessing tumor biology. It includes biophysical and theoretical explanations of the most relevant MRI techniques as well as examples of these techniques in cancer applications. The introductory part of the book covers basic cancer biology, theoretical aspects of NMR/MRI physics, and the hardware required to form MR images. Forming the core of the book, the next three parts illustrate how to characterize tissue properties with endogenous and exogenous contrast mechanisms and discuss common image processing techniques relevant for cancer. The final part explores emerging areas of MR cancer characterization, including radiation therapy planning, cellular and molecular imaging, pH imaging, and hyperpolarized MR. Each of the post-introductory chapters describes the salient qualitative and quantitative aspects of the techniques before proceeding to preclinical and clinical applications. Each chapter also contains references for further study. Leading the way toward more personalized medicine, this text brings together existing and emerging quantitative MRI techniques for assessing cancer. It provides a self-contained overview of the theoretical and experimental essentials and state of the art in cancer MRI.

Radiomics and Radiogenomics: Technical Basis and Clinical Applications provides a first summary of the overlapping fields of radiomics and radiogenomics, showcasing how they are being used to evaluate disease characteristics and correlate with treatment response and patient prognosis. It explains the fundamental principles, technical bases, and clinical applications with a focus on oncology. The book’s expert authors present computational approaches for extracting imaging features that help to detect and characterize disease tissues for improving diagnosis, prognosis, and evaluation of therapy response. This book is intended for audiences including imaging scientists, medical physicists, as well as medical professionals and specialists such as diagnostic radiologists, radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists. Features Provides a first complete overview of the technical underpinnings and clinical applications of radiomics and radiogenomics Shows how they are improving diagnostic and prognostic decisions with greater efficacy Discusses the image informatics, quantitative imaging, feature extraction, predictive modeling, software tools, and other key areas Covers applications in oncology and beyond, covering all major disease sites in separate chapters Includes an introduction to basic principles and discussion of emerging research directions with a roadmap to clinical translation

Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a ‘go-to’ reference for methods and applications of quantitative magnetic resonance imaging, with specific sections on Relaxometry, Perfusion, and Diffusion. Each section will start with an explanation of the basic techniques for mapping the tissue property in question, including a description of the challenges that arise when using these basic approaches. For properties which can be measured in multiple ways, each of these basic methods will be described in separate chapters. Following the basics, a chapter in each section presents more advanced and recently proposed techniques for quantitative tissue property mapping, with a concluding chapter on clinical applications. The reader will learn: The basic physics behind tissue property mapping How to implement basic pulse sequences for the quantitative measurement of tissue properties The strengths and limitations to the basic and more rapid methods for mapping the magnetic relaxation properties T1, T2, and T2* The pros and cons for different approaches to mapping perfusion The methods of Diffusion-weighted imaging and how this approach can be used to generate diffusion tensor maps and more complex representations of diffusion How flow, magneto-electric tissue property, fat fraction, exchange, elastography, and temperature mapping are performed How fast imaging approaches including parallel imaging, compressed sensing, and Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting can be used to accelerate or improve tissue property mapping schemes How tissue property mapping is used clinically in different organs Structured to cater for MRI researchers and graduate students with a wide variety of backgrounds Explains basic methods for quantitatively measuring tissue properties with MRI - including T1, T2, perfusion, diffusion, fat and iron fraction, elastography, flow, susceptibility - enabling the implementation of pulse sequences to perform measurements Shows the limitations of the techniques and explains the challenges to the clinical adoption of these traditional methods, presenting the latest research in rapid quantitative imaging which has the possibility to tackle these challenges Each section contains a chapter explaining the basics of novel ideas for quantitative mapping, such as compressed sensing and Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting-based approaches

This multidisciplinary textbook is designed to be the standard on the subject and is geared for use by physicians who are involved in the care and/or diagnosis of cancer patients. Comprehensive coverage is provided on all aspects of radioguided surgery. Practical information is readily accessible and throughout there is an emphasis on improved decision making. Tables present the indications, performance, and interpretation of procedures at a glance. A wealth of illustrations, including a full-color insert, enhances the application of new concepts.

​This book provides a complete overview of the role of machine learning in radiation oncology and medical physics, covering basic theory, methods, and a variety of applications in medical physics and radiotherapy. An introductory section explains machine learning, reviews supervised and unsupervised learning methods, discusses performance evaluation, and summarizes potential applications in radiation oncology. Detailed individual sections are then devoted to the use of machine learning in quality assurance; computer-aided detection, including treatment planning and contouring; image-guided radiotherapy; respiratory motion management; and treatment response modeling and outcome prediction. The book will be invaluable for students and residents in medical physics and radiation oncology and will also appeal to more experienced practitioners and researchers and members of applied machine learning communities.