A cutting-edge MRI scan can radically reduce the time brain cancer patients and their doctors
must now wait before seeing whether treatments targeting tumor growth are working, a new study suggests.
Researchers from the University of Michigan report that this special scanning method — known as diffusion MRI — measures water movement in the brain, and is designed to be used only three weeks into a seven-week treatment regimen of either chemotherapy or radiation.
They note that since water movement is slowed or blocked by the presence of tumor cells, any change in water flow mid-treatment would indicate a change in the size of the tumor.
Currently, traditional MRIs that measure brain tumor growth can only be successfully administered approximately six weeks after such treatments have ended, the researchers said.
