Quantitative MRI in Cancer

This volume explains the biophysics and theory behind many MRI techniques and gives examples of how these techniques are applied in cancer diagnosis and treatment. The first section of the book presents basic cancer biology, theoretical aspects of NMR/MRI physics, and the hardware required to form MR images. The next three sections cover image processing and characterizing tissue properties using endogenous and exogenous contrast mechanisms. The book concludes with emerging areas of MR cancer characterization, including radiation therapy planning, molecular and cellular imaging, pH imaging, and hyperpolarized MR.

Propelling quantitative MRI techniques from bench to bedside, Quantitative MRI in Cancer presents a range of quantitative MRI methods for assessing tumor biology. It includes biophysical and theoretical explanations of the most relevant MRI techniques as well as examples of these techniques in cancer applications.

The introductory part of the book covers basic cancer biology, theoretical aspects of NMR/MRI physics, and the hardware required to form MR images. Forming the core of the book, the next three parts illustrate how to characterize tissue properties with endogenous and exogenous contrast mechanisms and discuss common image processing techniques relevant for cancer. The final part explores emerging areas of MR cancer characterization, including radiation therapy planning, cellular and molecular imaging, pH imaging, and hyperpolarized MR. Each of the post-introductory chapters describes the salient qualitative and quantitative aspects of the techniques before proceeding to preclinical and clinical applications. Each chapter also contains references for further study.

Leading the way toward more personalized medicine, this text brings together existing and emerging quantitative MRI techniques for assessing cancer. It provides a self-contained overview of the theoretical and experimental essentials and state of the art in cancer MRI.