MRI for assessing antivascular cancer treatments

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Radiology
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Selective antiangiogenesis and vascular targeting drugs are promising for improved anticancer efficacy and tolerability.
• Early trials show good tolerability for antiangiogenesis agents below maximum tolerated dose.
• Tumor response assessments in advanced trials have limited value in gauging treatment efficacy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the role of MRI techniques in assessing the efficacy of antiangiogenesis and vascular targeting cancer therapies.
• To explore the potential of Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) as a pharmacodynamic indicator for antivascular drugs.
• To investigate emerging MRI techniques for monitoring vascular targeting therapies.

Main Methods:

• Review of early phase 1 and advanced clinical trials for antiangiogenesis agents.
• Validation of MRI techniques in xenografts and human studies.
• Clinical application of DCE-MRI to assess tissue perfusion and permeability.
• Exploration of MRI with macromolecular contrast media (MMCM) and intrinsic susceptibility-weighted MRI.

Main Results:

• DCE-MRI is clinically used as a pharmacodynamic indicator for antivascular cancer drugs.
• Early DCE-MRI data suggest it can define biologically active doses and predict treatment efficacy.
• MRI with MMCM shows promise in xenografts for evaluating antivascular treatments.
• Intrinsic susceptibility-weighted MRI is emerging for monitoring vascular targeting therapies.

Conclusions:

• MRI techniques, particularly DCE-MRI, are valuable tools for assessing the biological activity and predicting the efficacy of vascular targeting cancer therapies.
• DCE-MRI can help define optimal drug dosing and guide treatment decisions.
• Further clinical use of advanced MRI techniques like MMCM-MRI and susceptibility-weighted MRI is warranted for optimizing anticancer treatments.