MRS AND MRI OF BREAST CANCER AT VERY HIGH MAGNETIC FIELD

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。目前没有临床影像学方法能够提供足够的特异性来可靠地区分乳腺肿块的良恶性。病理评估是目前获得明确诊断的唯一途径。本研究的总体目标是开发和测试改进的高场（4特斯拉）MRS方法，并将其与对比增强（Gd-DTPA） MRI相结合，用于乳腺癌研究。虽然MRS在分析癌细胞的代谢状态方面具有很大的前景，但尚不确定MRS检测体内某些代谢物是否可以为区分良性和恶性病变提供高诊断特异性。我们相信，利用活体核磁共振技术可以显著提高恶性病变的识别能力。通过实施新方法，利用高磁场，优化灵敏度，从重叠的大分子共振（脂质）中分离某些代谢物共振（胆碱化合物和13C标记乳酸盐），可以避免假阳性和假阴性诊断。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. No clinical imaging method currently provides sufficient specificity to reliably differentiate between benign and malignant breast lumps. Pathologic evaluation is the only way currently to obtain a definitive diagnosis. The general goal of this research is to develop and test improved high field (4 Tesla) MRS methods, and to combine them with contrast-enhanced (Gd-DTPA) MRI, in studies of breast cancer. While MRS holds great promise for profiling the metabolic status of cancer cells, it has not yet been determined whether MRS detection of certain metabolites in vivo can provide high diagnostic specificity for differentiating between benign and malignant lesions. We believe that the ability to identify malignant lesions can be significantly improved using in vivo MRS. By implementing new methods that exploit the high magnetic field, optimize sensitivity, and separate certain metabolite resonances (choline compounds and 13C labeled lactate) from overlapping macromolecular resonances (lipids), false-positive and false-negative diagnoses can be avoided.