Commercialization of the Shutter-Speed Model for Dynamic MRI in Cancer Diagnosis

描述（由申请人提供）：尽管癌症检测和治疗取得了显著进展，但该疾病仍然是美国死亡的主要原因，占2011年所有死亡人数的23%。迄今为止，乳腺癌和前列腺癌分别是美国女性和男性最常见的诊断形式，预计今年将有超过45万例（24.6万例前列腺癌，22.9万例乳腺癌）新发病例和超过6.8万例死亡。由于每种疾病的严重过度治疗是如此重要的问题，因此迫切需要改进的微创检测和治疗监测方法。动态对比增强(DCE)- mri在这方面提供了实质性的希望。它是一种在静脉注射顺磁对比剂（CR）之前、期间和之后获取T1加权MR图像时间序列的技术。近年来，使用药代动力学模型量化DCE-MRI时间序列的好处已经引起了极大的兴趣，由此产生的参数图在癌症诊断和治疗评估中越来越重要。最近的研究表明，定量DCE-MRI有可能提高癌症检测的准确性，并提供更早、更准确的癌症治疗反应评估。SBIR快速通道项目的总体目标是开发和验证基于定量DCE-MRI的“快门速度模型”（SSM）的商业诊断软件应用。SSM是一种新颖的算法，它正确地解释了组织隔间之间水交换的有限动力学。这一点很重要，因为DCE-MRI的一个独特之处在于，通过对1H2O MR信号的影响，可以间接检测到cr；CR是示踪分子，而水是信号分子。SSM方法自然地包含了这一特征，并且已被证明比标准示踪剂DCE药代动力学模型更可靠地区分良性和恶性组织。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Despite remarkable advances in cancer detection and treatment, the disease continues to be a leading cause of mortality in the US accounting for 23% of all deaths in 2011. Cancer of the breast and prostate are by far the most common forms diagnosed in US women and men, respectively, and together are expected to represent more than 450,000 (246,000 prostate, 229,000 breast cancers) new cases and more than 68,000 deaths this year. Since the serious overtreatment of each disease is such a significant issue, improved methods for minimally invasive detection and therapy monitoring are badly needed. Dynamic contrast- enhanced (DCE)-MRI offers substantial promise in this regard. It is a technique acquiring a time-series of T1- weighted MR images before, during, and after intravenous injection of a paramagnetic contrast reagent (CR). The benefits of quantifying the DCE-MRI time-series using a pharmacokinetic model have gained significant interest in recent years and the resulting parametric maps are increasingly important in cancer diagnostics and treatment evaluation. Recent studies demonstrate that quantitative DCE-MRI has the potential to improve accuracy in cancer detection and provide earlier and more accurate evaluation of cancer response to therapy. The overall goal of this SBIR Fast-Track project is to develop and validate a commercial diagnostic software application based on the "Shutter-Speed Model" (SSM) for quantitative DCE-MRI. The SSM is a novel algorithm that properly accounts for the finite kinetics of water exchange between tissue compartments. This is important because a unique aspect of DCE-MRI is that the CRs are detected indirectly, via their effect on the 1H2O MR signal; CR is the tracer molecule but water is the signal molecule. The SSM approach naturally embraces this feature and has been shown to deliver more reliable discrimination between benign and malignant tissue than the standard tracer DCE pharmacokinetic model.