Magnetic resonance imaging for precise radiotherapy of small laboratory animals
Related Research units
Abstract
AIMS: Radiotherapy of small laboratory animals (SLA) is often not as precisely applied as in humans. Here we describe the use of a dedicated SLA magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner for precise tumor volumetry, radiotherapy treatment planning, and diagnostic imaging in order to make the experiments more accurate.
METHODS AND MATERIALS: Different human cancer cells were injected at the lower trunk of pfp/rag2 and SCID mice to allow for local tumor growth. Data from cross sectional MRI scans were transferred to a clinical treatment planning system (TPS) for humans. Manual palpation of the tumor size was compared with calculated tumor size of the TPS and with tumor weight at necropsy. As a feasibility study MRI based treatment plans were calculated for a clinical 6MV linear accelerator using a micro multileaf collimator (μMLC). In addition, diagnostic MRI scans were used to investigate animals which did clinical poorly during the study.
RESULTS: MRI is superior in precise tumor volume definition whereas manual palpation underestimates their size. Cross sectional MRI allow for treatment planning so that conformal irradiation of mice with a clinical linear accelerator using a μMLC is in principle feasible. Several internal pathologies were detected during the experiment using the dedicated scanner.
CONCLUSION: MRI is a key technology for precise radiotherapy of SLA. The scanning protocols provided are suited for tumor volumetry, treatment planning, and diagnostic imaging.
Bibliographical data
Original language | English |
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ISSN | 0939-3889 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |
PubMed | 27312789 |
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