Is the Chemo Working?

This image of a tumor in mouse bone is based on data from magnetic resonance imaging scans of the bone taken before and after chemotherapy to shrink the tumor. Using software developed at the U-M Cancer Center, scientists can map the diffusion of water through cells in the tumor. Green areas indicate portions of the tumor that did not respond to chemotherapy. Illustration: Brian D. Ross, Ph.D., U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center

Researchers at the Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed — and are currently testing in mice — a new technique that uses magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to measure the effectiveness of chemotherapy for prostate cancer that has spread to the bones. Currently, physicians have no way to tell whether or not bone tumors are responding to therapy.

The imaging technique uses special software to track the movement of water through cells in the tumor. It was developed by Brian D. Ross, Ph.D., a professor of radiology and of biological chemistry, and other scientists in the Cancer Center’s Molecular Imaging Program. Tumor cells slow the movement of water, so as those cells die from the effects of chemotherapy, water diffusion increases.

Functional diffusion map technology, as the technique is known, could be used to indicate if a tumor is shrinking, allowing patients to switch to an alternative therapy if a treatment isn’t working.

—Nicole Fawcett

For an expanded version of the story:
www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2007/prostatecancer.htm

For patient information on prostate cancer:
www.cancer.med.umich.edu/cancertreat/urologiconcology/
prostate_cancer.shtml