New imaging methods for detecting brain tumour response to treatment

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Patients with similar tumour types frequently have markedly different responses to the sametherapy. The development of new treatments would benefit, therefore, from the introduction of imaging methods that allow an early assessment of treatment response, allowing rapid selection of the most effective treatment, with welfare benefits for the patient and cost benefits for the healthcare system. Beneficial responses to treatment are still largely assessed from imaging measurements of reductions in tumour size. However, this may take several weeks to become manifest. Time is critical in the common brain tumour, glioblastoma multiforme, where the chance of being alive after 2 years is 16%. The aim of this research project is to develop imaging methods, which could be used in a hospital setting to detect the early responses of brain tumours to therapy. Firstly, by using a novel magnetic resonance (MR) method that detects a beneficial response to treatment through changes in chemical reactions within tumours. Secondly, by a novel image processing method in which a beneficial response to treatment is detected through changes in the wholeness of images. Here, MR images from patients are assessed.A radiologist will perform the research under the guidance of an experienced research imaging scientist.