Calibrating a Predictive Model of Tumor Growth and Angiogenesis with Quantitative MRI

The spatiotemporal variations in tumor vasculature inevitably alters cell proliferation and treatment efficacy. Thus, rigorous characterization of tumor dynamics must include a description of this phenomenon. We have developed a family of biophysical models of tumor growth and angiogenesis that are calibrated with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE-) MRI data to provide individualized tumor growth forecasts. Tumor and blood volume fractions were evolved using two, coupled partial differential equations consisting of proliferation, diffusion, and death terms. To evaluate these models, rats (n = 8) with C6 gliomas were imaged seven times. The tumor volume fraction was estimated using DW-MRI, while DCE-MRI provided estimates of the blood volume fraction. The first three time points were used to calibrate model parameters, which were then used to predict growth at the remaining four time points and compared directly to the measurements. The best performing model predicted tumor growth with less than 10.3% error in tumor volume and with less than 9.4% error at the voxel-level at all prediction time points. The best performing model resulted in less than 9.3% error in blood volume at the voxel-level. This pre-clinical study demonstrates the potential for image-based, mechanistic modeling of tumor growth and angiogenesis.