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This project is a collaboration between Andrew Trister (Sage Bionetworks) and Kristin Swanson (UniversityofWashingtonUniversity of Washington) to measure tumor growth kinetics in two modes (diffusion and proliferation) from pretreatment magnetic resonance images (MRIs). Ideally, two pretreatment MRIs with T1+gad and T2-weighted images are used to measure net proliferation and diffusion rates. In previous work, these measurements have informed characteristics of tumor progression after treatment [1]. They have shown that this ratio, measured from a single time point image, is sufficient to determine survival. Interestingly, they have measured over two orders of magnitude difference in these parameters among patients, demonstrating a significant difference in the underlying biology of individual tumors. They are using The Cancer Genome Atlas’ molecular measurements to investigate underlying biological perturbations driving these different modes of progression.
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