Natalie Serkova

Keywords: Education Committee: Clinical MRI

The primary focus of this talk is to discuss the evaluation criteria, advanced imaging protocols and new imaging biomarkers to assess treatment response in cancer patients treated with novel targeted and immune-therapies. For decades, one-dimensional measurements of a targeted tumor lesion (mostly based on sequential CT and sometimes MRI, depending on the site of malignancies) have been used as Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) to cytotoxic chemotherapeutics. Clinical needs for advanced MRI protocols (DWI, DCE-MRI, complementary PET) for early response to cytostatic signal transduction inhibitors and RECIST modification for checkpoint inhibitors (iRECIST) will be discussed.

Richard Ehman

Keywords: Contrast mechanisms: Elastography, Image acquisition: Quantification, Cross-organ: Tissue characterisation

A common task in diagnostic imaging is to assess the response of disease to therapy.  MRI is inherently quantitative, providing access to many powerful biomarkers for characterizing tissue.  Yet, few quantitative imaging techniques have been widely adopted in clinical practice, other than simply obtaining and recording measurements of the spatial dimensions of focal lesions (such as RECIST criteria).  This presentation will review emerging evidence for several applications of MR elastography as a quantitative biomarker in cancer management. Lessons learned in gaining clinical adoption of MRE as an accepted surrogate for treatment response in chronic liver disease will be described.