Oncology poised to gain from perfusion studies

August 6, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. Oncology poised to gain from perfusion studies Tumor microvessel network indicates effectiveness of anti-antiogenic treatment faster than does lesion size Paula Gould -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stroke is typically the headline application in all discussions of perfusion CT. Now interest in this technique is growing from a very different direction: oncology imaging. The development of anti-angiogenic cancer drugs has highlighted the importance of vascularity to cancer imaging specialists. While radiologists have traditionally used a lesion's size to monitor treatment, it can take several weeks for changes in size to indicate the effect of therapy. For patients receiving anti- angiogenic drugs, the health of a tumor's microvessel network may be a much better indicator of outcome. This same marker could also be used to evaluate the efficacy of new drugs during the development process. "It has been shown that by measuring the perfusion of tissue, the effectiveness of an anti-angiogenic therapy can be determined in advance of ever seeing any change in tumor size," said Dr. Geoffrey Rubin, chief of cardiovascular imaging at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.

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