4D-MRI for Precision Medicine

Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot listed
Trial typeObservational
Biological sexAll
Age18-82
SponsorUniversity of Virginia

About this trial

The purpose of this study is to develop new ways to make medical images of the lungs and liver of adults using a technique called four-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging (4D-MRI). This technique produces three-dimensional movies of the inside of the chest and abdomen while the patient is breathing. (The fourth dimension is time!)

This new way of medical imaging is being developed to help cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. Radiation therapy is used to treat cancerous tumors. For radiation therapy to be effective, the precise size, shape, and location of the tumor within the body must be known. A particular difficulty for radiation treatment of lung and liver cancer is that the tumor moves during treatment because the patient is breathing. Therefore, tumor motion must also be incorporated into the treatment plan. This study aims to improve radiation treatment planning through better targeting and dose estimation based on 4D-MRI. Before this new imaging method can be used for radiation treatment planning, it must be tested in living, breathing volunteers.

Eligibility criteria

This trial accepts healthy volunteers

Qualifiers

Patient is 21 or older

Patient has primary or metastatic tumor(s) in the lungs or the liver

Diameter of the tumor(s) is less than 7 cm

Patient will receive radiation therapy (ordered by the treating Radiation Oncologist) as part of their treatment regimen

Disqualifiers

Any condition for which a MRI procedure is contraindicated including presence of metallic material in the body, such as pacemakers, non- MRI compatible surgical clips, shrapnel, etc.

Subjects who have difficulty lying flat on their back for extended periods of time

Patients with any serious/poorly controlled medical or psychological conditions that would complicate protocol compliance

Too large to adequately fit in the magnet bore or RF coils

Trial population

Up to 30 lung cancer patients, 30 liver cancer patients, and 40 healthy human volunteers will receive MRI examinations at the University of Virginia to directly measure respiratory motion in the thorax and abdomen. All subject populations will include roughly equal male and female representations. The subject populations will have minority and ethnic representation typical of the local population area that includes the University of Virginia. No specific racial or ethnic group will be excluded. All subjects must have the ability to understand the requirements of the study and must provide informed consent with a personal signature. No persons from vulnerable populations will be included in this study.

Trial design

Design model

Case-control

Time perspective

Prospective

Treatments tested in this trial

  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging

    Diagnostic test

    Four-dimensional MRI of torso

Treatment groups

100 Participants
are divided into 3 treatment groups
Group A: Healthy1 intervention
Group B: Liver cancer1 intervention
Group C: Lung cancer1 intervention

Trial outcomes

Primary outcomes

1

Image quality metrics in healthy volunteers

General 4D-MRI image quality will be assessed based on signal-to-noise ratio, number of distinct images per breathing cycle, total necessary imaging time, and image quality index.

Time frame
single imaging session, lasting up to 2 hours
2

Image quality metrics in cancer patients

We hypothesize that our ultra-quality 4D-MRI methodology will outperform 4D-CT for motion management of radiotherapy in the lungs and the liver. We will test this hypothesis by comparing image quality based on tumor volume consistency, number of trackable landmarks, motion measurement accuracy, and image quality index.

Time frame
single imaging session, lasting up to 2 hours
3

DVF errors in healthy volunteers and cancer patients

We hypothesize that our motion modeling method based on 4D-MRI will outperform current DIR algorithms for respiratory motion estimation. We will test this hypothesis by comparing our method to five existing DIR algorithms, based on the magnitude error (Em) and the angular error (Ea) of the calculated deformation vector field (DVF).

Time frame
single imaging session, lasting up to 2 hours

Secondary outcomes

Other outcomes

Sponsors and contacts

Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.

University of Virginia

Lead sponsor

Duke University

Collaborator

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Collaborator