FRI may be able to help in optimizing lung tumor treatment
Functional Respiratory Imaging (FRI) may be able to help in optimizing lung tumor treatment.
It is not enough to only look at nodule size as one parameter to determine treatment decisions for lung tumors.
FRI can help as it yields valuable local information about vascularization, tissue structure ventilation and perfusion, which is hard to obtain with other alternative technology.
We used FRI to assess the effect of immunotherapy on nodule volume and blood vessel volume in a patient with non-small cell lung cancer during three months of treatment. The tumor was clearly visible in the baseline scan as a nodule in the right upper lobe.
The blood vessel volume in the right upper lobe, where the tumor was located, was 117% predicted. The blood vessel volumes in the other lobes ranged from 103% predicted to 116% predicted with the average blood vessel volume 110% predicted.
In this video you can see how each FRI parameter changed over the course of 3 months of immunotherapy. After 3 months, the volume of the nodule was reduced by approximately 50%.
Interestingly, blood vessel volumes decreased significantly across all lobes. Post-treatment, the average blood vessel volume across lobes had dropped to only 90% predicted.
Novel imaging approaches such as FRI, especially in combination with machine learning, can provide valuable insights into using a holistic approach which can lead to early and effective treatments against lung cancer.
Categorised in: Research / February 6, 2020 11:03 am /
Tags: Nodule, Tumor