Research team receives grant to study cancer therapy response
A UT Southwestern team led by Dr. Ananth Madhuranthakam, along with Dr. Joseph Maldjian and Dr. Ivan Pedrosa, has received a $3.1 million award from NIH/NCI. This 5-year U01 grant will support their research to investigate and establish arterial spin labeled (ASL) MR imaging as a quantitative non-contrast perfusion method to assess cancer therapy response in patients with brain tumors (glioblastoma, GBM) or advanced kidney cancer (metastatic renal cell carcinoma, mRCC).
Compared to the currently existing methods, ASL-MRI can detect perfusion changes in patients undergoing cancer therapy, much earlier than the tumor size changes. Such early changes in ASL measured perfusion without the need for injecting contrast agent, may predict tumor responsiveness better, thereby affecting patient management in a timely manner by changing treatments that may be ineffective and potentially toxic.
This award enables the UT Southwestern team to join 17 other sites as part of the Quantitative Imaging Network (QIN), convened by National Cancer Institute. UT Southwestern is the first site from the southwestern region of the US to join the QIN team, and the first to focus on kidney cancer.