Improved Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Breast Cancer

描述（由申请人提供）：这是一份职业发展资助提案，旨在使Glen Morrell博士（申请人）在乳腺癌磁共振成像（MRI）新方法的应用方面开展长期研究计划。他于1998年获得斯坦福大学电子工程博士学位，研究MRI的新方法。随后，他在斯坦福大学完成了医学院的学业，并在宾夕法尼亚大学获得了MRI诊断放射学住院医师和奖学金。他现在是犹他大学放射学助理教授的第一年。他的目标是将他在MRI物理和新型MRI技术方面的知识与放射学的临床实践相结合，特别是在乳腺癌MRI方面。尽管申请人接受了多年的教育，但他没有接受过电气工程方面的博士后培训，也没有机会将他在博士研究中开发的技术应用于临床相关的影像学问题。所要求的支持将使Morrell博士能够继续他在医学成像相关的物理和工程方面的教育，并继续获得作为放射科医生的临床专业知识。在五年的资助期内，Morrell博士将应用他博士研究的多维激发技术来改进乳房MRI，并通过有限的临床试验验证这些技术。他将对量子力学和其他与核磁共振直接相关的物理原理有更深入的了解，目的是开发乳房的光谱成像方法。他将在临床试验的设计和研究的实施方面得到指导。所提出的研究计划的预期益处是提高乳腺癌的检测，减少乳腺良性病变的浸润性活检次数。基于该基金支持的试点研究，Morrell博士将通过R01或类似机制提交资助提案，以维持和扩大乳腺癌MRI的长期研究项目，与犹他大学肿瘤学，药剂学和遗传学方面建立良好的项目合作。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a career development grant proposal to enable Dr. Glen Morrell (the applicant) to develop a long term research program in the application of new methods of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of breast cancer. Dr. Morrell received a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford in 1998, researching novel methods for MRI. He then completed medical school at Stanford and a Diagnostic Radiology residency and fellowship in MRI at the University of Pennsylvania. He is now in his first year as Assistant Professor of Radiology at the University of Utah. His goal is to combine his knowledge of MRI physics and novel MRI techniques with the clinical practice of radiology, specifically in MRI of breast cancer. Despite the applicant's many years of education, he has had no postdoctoral training in electrical engineering, and has not had opportunity to apply techniques developed in his Ph.D. research to clinically relevant imaging problems. The requested support will allow Dr. Morrell to continue his education in aspects of physics and engineering related to medical imaging, and to continue to gain clinical expertise as a radiologist. During the five-year funding period, Dr. Morrell will apply techniques of multi-dimensional excitation from his Ph.D. research to improve breast MRI and validate these techniques through limited clinical trials. He will gain a greater understanding of quantum mechanics and other principles of physics directly relating to MRI with the aim of developing methods of spectroscopic imaging of the breast. He will be mentored in the design of clinical trials and the conduct of research. The expected benefit of the proposed research plan is improved detection of breast cancer and decreased number of invasive biopsies of benign breast lesions. Based on the pilot studies supported by this grant, Dr. Morrell will submit proposals for funding through R01 or similar mechanisms to maintain and expand a long term research program in MRI of breast cancer, collaborating with well established programs in oncology, pharmaceutics, and genetics at the University of Utah.