QUANTITATIVE SPECTROSCOPIC AND ANATOMIC PROSTATE IMAGING AT 7 TESLA

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. Primary support for the subproject and the subproject's principal investigator may have been provided by other sources, including other NIH sources. The Total Cost listed for the subproject likely represents the estimated amount of Center infrastructure utilized by the subproject, not direct funding provided by the NCRR grant to the subproject or subproject staff. ) Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men where one in six will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime. Despite its prevalence, few diagnostic tools, mainly biopsy and serum PSA, exist for monitoring disease progression and determining treatment success. Biopsies, while able to locally monitor the prostate, are both invasive and underestimate grade and extent of disease while PSA lacks specificity. Improved methods to monitor the disease state would greatly benefit prostate cancer management by minimizing the need for unnecessary treatment and associated morbidity and by providing early indication of local recurrence after treatment. The main objectives of this research is to 1) develop a 7 Tesla (7T) prostate platform including the development and evaluation of several interdependent components: RF coils, novel anatomic and spectroscopic imaging methods and spectral quantification techniques and 2) validate the newly proposed quantitative biomarkers as sensitive tools to detect disease, determine extent and assess aggressiveness. By taking advantage of the increased spatial and spectral resolution of an optimized ultra-high field (7T) prostate imaging platform, our expected outcome is the ability to track small changes in prostate cancer biomarkers important for 1) determining the transition of cancer from indolent to biologically significant disease during active surveillance studies and 2) monitoring treatment to quantitatively evaluate new therapies and guide "patient-tailored" strategies.