Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging on hybrid magnetic resonance linear accelerators: Perspective on technical and clinical validation

Daniela Thorwarth; Matthias Ege; Marcel Nachbar; David Mönnich; Cihan Gani; Daniel Zips; Simon Boeke

doi:10.1016/j.phro.2020.09.007

Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging on hybrid magnetic resonance linear accelerators: Perspective on technical and clinical validation

Phys Imaging Radiat Oncol. 2020 Oct 17:16:69-73. doi: 10.1016/j.phro.2020.09.007. eCollection 2020 Oct.

Authors

Daniela Thorwarth^{1

2}, Matthias Ege¹, Marcel Nachbar¹, David Mönnich^{1

2}, Cihan Gani³, Daniel Zips^{2

3}, Simon Boeke^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Section for Biomedical Physics, Department of Radiation Oncology, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
² German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), Partner Site Tübingen, and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
³ Department for Radiation Oncology, University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.

Abstract

Many preclinical and clinical observations support that functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), such as diffusion weighted (DW) and dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) MRI, might have a predictive value for radiotherapy. The aim of this review was to assess the current status of quantitative MRI on hybrid MR-Linacs. In a literature research, four publications were identified, investigating technical feasibility, accuracy, repeatability and reproducibility of DW and DCE-MRI in phantoms and first patients. Accuracy and short term repeatability was < 5% for DW-MRI in current MR-Linac systems. Consequently, quantitative imaging providing accurate and reproducible functional information seems possible in MR-Linacs.

Keywords: Diffusion-weighted MRI; MR-Linac; MR-guided radiotherapy; Quantitative MRI.

Publication types

Review