Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/M59051/01
Title:	DEVELOPMENT OF CORRELATIVE ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES FOR MRI AND PET IMAGING IN BREAST CANCER
Principal Investigator:	Redpath, Professor T
Other Investigators:	Sharp, Professor P Heys, Professor S Hutcheon, Dr A Gilbert, Professor FJ Smith, Dr I Ah-See, Mr A
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:	University of Aberdeen
Department:	Biomedical Physics and Bioengineering
Organisation:	University of Aberdeen
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 October 1999	Ends:	30 September 2002	Value (£):	165,769
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Image & Vision Computing
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Healthcare Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
Cancers treated with chemotherapy reduce in size in response to effective drugs. Such a reduction is not evident until several does have been administered; therefore, unresponsive tumours cannot be identified at an early stage. Positron emission topography (PET) using the glucose analogue 18F-FDG is an imaging technique that yields information regarding sugar utilisation by cancer cells. Using PET we have shown that the rate of glucose metabolism in cancers falls significantly in response to a single dose of effective chemotherapy. PET therefore allows the early prediction of cancer response allowing a timely alteration in the treatment being used so preventing the administration of ineffective, toxic and expensive drugs. Unfortunately PET facilities are not widely available in the UK. Dynamic gadolinium enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of cancers provides information regarding the permeability of blood vessel walls to low molecular weight compounds, and the volume of the extra-cellular compartment. Both these parameters may change early on in response to effective treatment. We hypothesise that techniques can be developed using more widely available MRI to monitor early cancer response. We propose to develop techniques for correlative PET/MRI data analysis, and to validate them in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.abdn.ac.uk