UCSF Researchers to Study Hyperpolarized Carbon-13 MRI in Prostate Cancer Patients

The National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Cancer Institute (NCI) have awarded funding to the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging to study hyperpolarized (HP) carbon-13 (¹³C) metabolic MRI in prostate cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy (RT). Faculty members Robert Bok, MD, PhD, and Daniel Vigneron, PhD, are primary investigators of the project and were awarded a five-year, R01 grant titled "Hyperpolarized C-13 MRI Techniques to Monitor Radiation Therapy Response in Prostate Cancer Patients." Drs. Bok and Vigneron will collaborate with Anthony Wong MD, PhD, faculty member with the UCSF Department of Radiation Oncology to study the application of HP ¹³C MRI for the first time to evaluate the metabolic response of human prostate tumors to RT.

"This clinical project builds on previous preclinical and clinical work performed at UCSF," says Dr. Vigneron. "Preclinical investigations on HP ¹³C MRI in a transgenic murine model of prostate cancer demonstrated the ability of this fast, non-radioactive, metabolic imaging technology to rapidly detect key physiological responses of prostate tumors to RT."

The preclinical findings showing early metabolic response within four to seven days were also the result of a close collaboration between UCSF Radiology and UCSF Radiation Oncology. These findings were recently published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics (IJROBP). This new project also builds on the researchers' previous experience with clinical trials of HP ¹³C MRI in prostate cancer patients, ranging from early stage (Active Surveillance) to late stage (castrate-resistant, metastatic) disease. The first proof-of-concept clinical investigations of HP ¹³C MRI were performed at UCSF in prostate cancer patients.

Support from the Hyperpolarized MRI Technology Resource Center (HMTRC) at UCSF, a National Center for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NCBIB) funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) (P41EB013598) led by Jane Wang, MD, medical director and Dr. Vigneron has been crucial for this groundbreaking work. An additional NIH grant helped support the pre-clinical work (R01CA214554).