# Establishing the Validity of Brain Tumor Perfusion Imaging

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR · 2024 · $338,006

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 The principal goal of this competitive renewal is to establish clinical brain tumor perfusion imaging protocols
strategically designed for high accuracy, physiologic sensitivity and clinical applicability. Dynamic susceptibility
contrast (DSC) MRI is one of the most widely used advanced imaging techniques in neuro-oncology, with a
reported use of 85% in all routine brain tumor scans at sites across the US and Europe. During the previous
funding cycle, the singular aim of the project was to identify the most accurate DSC-MRI acquisition protocol(s)
by developing, validating and applying a population-based digital reference object (DRO) and then verifying
these protocols in patients with brain tumors. The most significant finding of this effort was the identification and
clinical validation of an accurate single contrast agent dose and single-echo DSC-MRI protocol, which has now
been adopted as the consensus recommendation by the brain tumor imaging community. Another key result of
this project was the validation, using the DRO and a prospective patient study, of a single-dose, dual-echo DSC-
MRI sequence, an approach that enables simultaneous assessment of DSC and dynamic contrast enhanced
(DCE)-MRI data, as the protocol with highest accuracy, even across variable pulse sequence parameters and
tissue properties. Building on the success of this prior work, we now aim to overcome two obstacles that still limit
DSC-MRI’s clinical utility, accuracy, and multi-site consistency: i) a reliance on echo planar imaging (EPI) based
pulse sequences that undermine the geometric fidelity, reliable colocalization of perfusion and anatomic images
and accuracy of derived DCE-MRI data, and ii) lack of validation of, and a benchmark for, brain tumor DSC/DCE-
MRI post-processing algorithms and software, for both single- and dual-echo acquisitions. These limitations
represent critical and clinically relevant challenges that urgently need to be addressed. To address these issues,
we propose to: 1) establish an anthropomorphic benchmark for validating brain tumor DSC DCE-MRI analysis
tools and 2) develop a three-dimensional, dual-echo pulse sequence for simultaneous DSC/DCE MRI. In this
project we will provide the neuro-oncology community with validated image acquisition and analysis methods for
accurate, physiologic sensitive and clinically applicable DSC/DCE-MRI mapping methods in brain tumor patients.
We will provide the first DSC/DCE-MRI anthropomorphic benchmark that can be used to validate existing and
future algorithms and software, thereby improving multi-site and clinical trial consistency. Ultimately, validated
DSC-MRI techniques will improve its reliability and relevancy across a range of clinical scenarios, including tumor
localization, therapy response assessment, surgical and biopsy guidance, and multi-site clinical trials of
conventional and targeted brain tumor therapies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10695870
- **Project number:** 5R01CA213158-08
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Christopher Chad Quarles
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $338,006
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-07-03 → 2028-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10695870

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10695870, Establishing the Validity of Brain Tumor Perfusion Imaging (5R01CA213158-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10695870. Licensed CC0.

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