The selection of one or more treatment modalities (e.g., radiation therapy, chemotherapy and surgery) has been empirically derived based on trials with these agents in previously treated patients. However, in the individual case one cannot predict whether or not that tumor will respond to treatment nor the extent of that response. As a consequence, individual patients may be subjected to a protracted course of therapy which ultimately may be ineffective or may be denied a potentially useful therapy because of the statistical likelihood that the tumor will not respond. It would be desirable to have a noninvasive in vivo system to predict whether an individual will respond to treatments and, therefore, optimize the course of therapy. Utilizing the newly implemented (1) in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) on a 1.4T wholebody imager, we intend to characterize the alterations of phosphorous metabolites and intracellular pH of human neoplasms in response to radiotherapy and correlate the MRS findings with the clinical end points. In order to obtain a statistical significance of these studies, a large number of patient population with either squamous cell carcinoma or lymphoma (Hodgkin or nonHodgkin will participate in this project. The MRS data will be further correlated to the distribution of aneuploid and euploid populations obtained from the measurement of DNA content by flow cytometry. The MRI measurements will also be made to identify the boundary, inhomogeneity and central necrosis of tumors. Histopathological analysis will also be performed for each case. It is hoped that some of the biochemical processes and radiobiology of human neoplasms in response to the fractionated gammairradiation regimen will also be delineated. Ultimately it would be possible to predict whether the treatments will control the tumor base on the characteristic changes in the MRS spectra, and one may more rationally choose the primary modality and decide the need for one or more adjuvant therapies (e.g., surgery, chemotherapy, etc.)

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01CA043319-03
Application #
3185515
Study Section
Radiation Study Section (RAD)
Project Start
1987-08-01
Project End
1991-07-31
Budget Start
1989-08-01
Budget End
1991-07-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
1989
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Cleveland Clinic Lerner
Department
Type
DUNS #
017730458
City
Cleveland
State
OH
Country
United States
Zip Code
44195
Ng, T C; Majors, A W; Vijayakumar, S et al. (1989) Human neoplasm pH and response to radiation therapy: P-31 MR spectroscopy studies in situ. Radiology 170:875-8
Majors, A W; Ng, T C; Xue, M et al. (1989) Monitoring therapeutic response of human superficial tumors using phase-encoded spectroscopy. Magn Reson Med 12:369-78