Researchers at Amsterdam UMC – Cancer Center Amsterdam have received a 950.000 euro grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for the ReCreaTe project, which is being carried out in close collaboration with researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) and Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). With this project, they aim to take an important step towards more personalised cancer care by making a new generation of quantitative MRI scans more reliable and comparable across institutions.
More information from a single MRI scan
Every tumour is different and responds differently to treatment. Yet many patients still receive therapy based on a standard approach. Quantitative MRI has the potential to change this. Whereas conventional MRI mainly shows where a tumour is located, quantitative MRI also measures properties of the tumour tissue, such as blood perfusion. This information can help clinicians better predict which treatment is most likely to be effective for an individual patient.
Although this technique is being widely investigated around the world, its adoption in clinical practice remains limited. One of the main reasons is the lack of a standardized approach for performing these measurements. Different MRI manufacturers use their own methods for acquiring data and reconstructing images. In addition, research groups often rely on in-house software to analyze the images. As a result, the same tumour can produce different quantitative measurements in different hospitals. This makes it difficult to compare study results and to reproduce findings across centres. Consequently, quantitative perfusion MRI has not yet reached routine clinical practice or benefited patients on a broad scale.
Reliable measurements, regardless of the scanner
To address this, the ReCreaTe team is developing an open-source measurement method that is independent of the MRI scanner’s manufacturer. The method will be rigorously tested on scanners from different vendors and in multiple hospitals. In addition, the researchers are working with international experts to develop a widely accepted global standard.
“Each year, thousands of scientific studies on quantitative MRI are published worldwide, but much of that knowledge has yet to reach the patient,” says Dr. Oliver Gurney-Champion of Cancer Center Amsterdam. “By standardising MRI measurements, research findings can be translated far more quickly into everyday clinical practice. That brings personalised treatments a significant step closer.”
Accelerating personalised treatment
The potential impact is substantial. Once MRI measurements are performed in the same standardised way everywhere, research results can be implemented much faster in daily care, Oliver explains. “Imagine that research shows that tumours with high perfusion respond better to radiotherapy, while a different treatment is more effective for tumours with low perfusion. Thanks to standardised MRI measurements, such insights can be applied more quickly and reliably, allowing treatments to be tailored more precisely to the individual patient. This increases the likelihood of successful outcomes, reduces unnecessary side effects and may ultimately help to lower healthcare costs.”