Use of advanced magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography for characterising inflammation in brain tumours

胶质瘤是一种原发的脑肿瘤，其范围从年轻成年人生长相对缓慢的肿瘤到晚年出现的高度侵袭性肿瘤。尽管积极的治疗结合了手术和放化疗，这些肿瘤的治愈仍然是不可能的，再加上最常见的亚型预后较差(胶质母细胞瘤的中位生存期约为15个月)，导致了不成比例的高社会经济影响。治疗计划依赖于肿瘤范围的放射学鉴定，典型的是核磁共振成像(MRI)。临床上使用的基于脑血流和毛细血管渗漏的脑成像技术在检测肿瘤细胞对肿瘤周围组织的侵袭方面存在局限性。先进的MRI和正电子发射断层扫描(PET)技术已被用于获取定量的脑成像数据，例如使用MRI获取组织的松弛和扩散特性，利用研究小组在这方面拥有丰富经验的氨基酸转运和神经炎症。本博士项目的目的是促进以超小的超顺磁性纳米铁(USPIO)作为造影剂的增强MRI成像方法的发展。这项新的脑成像技术目前被用于监测肿瘤微环境，特别是肿瘤相关的巨噬细胞，以便为治疗计划提供更好的指导。这个博士研究生的基础是生物医学成像科学，重点是组织分类、脑肿瘤特征和多参数映射的数据分析方法。它提供图像处理、分割和分析以及统计成像方法方面的培训机会。它嵌入在临床科学家和成像专家的跨学科研究环境中，这些专家设在曼彻斯特大学的成像设施和曼彻斯特临床神经科学中心与杰弗里·杰斐逊脑研究中心合作。作为培训的一部分，研究生研究员将被鼓励参加医学影像科学硕士的相关课程单元。

Gliomas are primary brain tumours which span a spectrum from comparatively slow growing tumours in young adults to highly aggressive tumours presenting later in life. Despite aggressive treatment combining surgery followed by radio-chemotherapy, cure of these tumours remains impossible which together with the poor prognosis of the most common subtype (approximately 15 months median survival for glioblastoma) leads to a disproportionately high socio-economic impact. Treatment planning relies on the radiological identification of the tumour extent typically with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Clinically used brain imaging techniques based on cerebral blood flow and capillary leakage are limited in detecting tumour cell invasion into the tissue surrounding the tumour.Advanced MRI and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) techniques have been used to acquire quantitative brain imaging data, for example, tissue relaxivity and diffusivity characteristics using MRI, amino acid transport and neuroinflammation using PET for which the research team has extensive experience.The aim of this PhD project is to contribute to the development of the imaging methodology for enhanced MRI using ultrasmall superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (USPIO) as contrast medium. This novel brain imaging technique is currently researched for the monitoring of the tumour microenvironment, in particular for tumour associated macrophages, in order to provide improved guidance to treatment planning.This PhD studentship is based in biomedical imaging science with an emphasis on data analysis methodology for tissue classification, brain tumour characterisation and multi-parametric mapping. It provides training opportunities in image processing, segmentation and analysis plus statistical imaging methods. It is embedded in an interdisciplinary research environment of clinical scientists and imaging experts based at the Imaging Facilities at the University of Manchester and the Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences in association with Geoffrey Jefferson Brain Research Centre. As part of the training, the postgraduate researcher will be encouraged to attend relevant course units from the MSc in Medical Imaging Science.