Imaging hypoxia in tumours with advanced MRI

Q J Nucl Med Mol Imaging. 2013 Sep;57(3):257-70.

Abstract

Tumour hypoxia results in biological alterations that leads to a more aggressive disease phenotype and is associated with resistance to treatment. In this review, we discuss current magnetic resonance imaging techniques, which can be applied to evaluate tumour hypoxia, highlighting the principles of each technique, their pre-clinical and clinical deployment, as well as their strengths and limitations. The potential to combine these techniques, and also with other imaging modalities (e.g., PET imaging) using a multiparametric approach, may further improve our understanding of the complex interaction of vascular supply, oxygen diffusion and tissue metabolism in pathogenesis of tumour hypoxia; and its reversal with treatment.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Hypoxia*
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
  • Molecular Imaging / methods*
  • Multimodal Imaging / methods
  • Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging
  • Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • Neovascularization, Pathologic / diagnostic imaging
  • Neovascularization, Pathologic / metabolism*
  • Oxygen / metabolism*
  • Positron-Emission Tomography / methods*
  • Tumor Microenvironment

Substances

  • Oxygen