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1 Cancer Research UK Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research Group, 2 Department of Medicine and 3 Academic Department of Radiotherapy, Institute of Cancer Research and Royal Marsden Hospital, Downs Road, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT, UK
Correspondence: Professor Martin O Leach
| Abstract |
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| Introduction |
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Malignant lesions exhibit altered metabolism compared with normal tissues. This has led to the investigation of functional medical imaging modalities such as MR spectroscopy (MRS) as methods of monitoring tumour metabolism. This provides a non-invasive window on mobile metabolite moieties in vivo that may be used to investigate changes in response to therapy. To date, MRS studies of tumour response in extracranial human cancer have primarily employed phosphorus (31P) spectroscopy to study changes in phosphorylated metabolites, in particular the cell membrane precursors phoshphoethanolamine (PE) and phosphocholine (PC). Differential spectral changes as a function of subsequent chemotherapeutic response have been reported for a range of cancers, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), sarcoma and breast carcinoma [13]. However, proton (1H) MRS is intrinsically more sensitive than 31P (by a factor of 2.47) owing to the higher gyromagnetic ratio of the proton. In contrast to 31P, almost all human in vivo 1H MRS studies to date have focused on the brain, including intracranial tumours, and in this context 1H MRS has begun to find routine clinical use. It has been established that the 1H spectral characteristics of brain tumours differ significantly from those of normal grey and white matter and, moreover, can differentiate between tumour type and grade [4]. Recent human studies in prostate and breast cancer have observed elevated choline levels and suggest that 1H MRS may also supply useful information in tumours outside the cranial cavity at a scanner field strength of 1.5 T [59]. Pre-clinical 1H studies have shown significant decreases in choline and lactate resonances in radiation insensitive fibrosarcoma-1 tumours treated with radiation and 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy [1012]. However, extracranial in vivo 1H studies are often subject to strong contaminating lipid signals from fatty tissues near the lesion of interest.
The aim of this pilot study was to assess the metabolic information available from 1H MRS spectra of extracranial lymphoma and germ cell malignancies, and to examine the potential utility of any metabolic changes occurring with chemotherapy treatment.
| Materials and methods |
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Patient response was the primary end point, and was assessed at the first independent routine clinical follow-up, based on bi-directional measurements of lesion size from CT scans (World Health Organization criteria of response [13] or clinical evidence of disease progression on treatment. CT scans were performed at a median of 57 days (range 4493 days) following commencement of chemotherapy.
In cases where MR anatomical images provided complete coverage of the lesion, the tumour volume was determined from freehand regions of interest drawn around the lesion periphery in each slice containing the tumour, for each of the three orthogonal imaging series obtained. The average of the volumes determined from each series was used as the MRI-derived tumour volume. However this was not used in the clinical response assessment.
All patients gave fully informed consent in agreement with internal ethics procedures.
MR measurements
All measurements were performed using a Siemens Magnetom Vision 1.5T whole body clinical MR system (Siemens, Erlangen, Germany). Patients were positioned supine in the magnet with the 1H surface coil placed adjacent to the target lesion. Tumours in the pelvic, abdominal or mediastinal regions were studied using a Siemens flexible 1H receive surface coil: (proprietary circularly polarized coil comprising three elements, one 12 cm wide x 14.1 cm long single loop, and two 15.4 cm wide x 14.7 cm long elements, forming a butterfly design (widths and lengths from a common axis). For neck nodes a circular, 10 cm diameter, receive coil was used.
The MR measurement protocol comprised sets of localizer T1 and T2 weighted images in three orthogonal planes followed by automated shimming to optimize local magnetic field homogeneity. We found a true-fast imaging with steady-state precession sequence (repetition time/echo time =6.32/3.0 ms, flip angle
le;70°, slice thickness 68 mm) particularly useful for clear localization of the target lesion. Subsequently, spectra localized to a volume of interest (VOI) of 246 ml (mean 18 ml) positioned within the tumour were acquired using the manufacturer's single voxel stimulated echo acquisition mode (STEAM) spectroscopy sequences. VOIs were chosen to inscribe the largest contiguous portion of the lesion, and typically decreased with tumour shrinkage following treatment. With larger tumours a large VOI was selected in a region of the tumour closest to the coil. Short echo time (TE), 20 ms, spectra were obtained with a repetition time of 2 s, a mixing time of 30 ms and 128 averages each, giving a measurement time of approximately 4.5 min per spectrum. The water signal was suppressed using chemical shift selective pulses prior to each STEAM repetition, permitting the metabolite signals to be measured with maximum sensitivity. An unsuppressed water signal with 816 averages was also acquired at each TE as a normalization reference. The total measurement time for this protocol was typically 35 min. In subsequent scans, care was taken to reposition the coil and VOI in accordance with previous measurements.
A standard sequence was chosen for this pilot study to assess the feasibility of obtaining metabolite signals using 1H MRS in these cancers and tumour sites. Potential for methodological improvements in this area is discussed later.
Data analysis
Spectra were processed offline using the MR user interface (MRUI)/variable projection (VARPRO) time domain processing algorithm [14]. Gaussian model functions were fitted to the unsuppressed water signal and to identifiable metabolite and lipid peaks. Since the signals are fitted in the time domain, the fitted signal values reported correspond to the amplitudes of each signal's free induction decay (FID) at time t=0 (being the start of the signal acquisition). These values are directly proportional to the peak area of the equivalent frequency-domain resonance. The noise standard deviation (
N) is also calculated by MRUI for each metabolite spectrum from the residual time domain signal. As such, this provides a useful noise baseline for the values obtained for the individual metabolite signal amplitudes.
Metabolite signal values were expressed as percentages of the water signal at the same echo time, following correction for the differential receiver gains. The tumour volume was measured from its area in each of the contiguous image slices intersecting the tumour using all three orthogonal image sets. Post-treatment choline-containing metabolite (tCho):water signal amplitude ratios were expressed as fractions of the pre-treatment baseline value.
| Results |
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Based upon published 1H MRS observations in other human cancers, we tentatively assign the 3.2 ppm resonance to the trimethyl ammonium N-(CH3)3 moiety of tCho. Signals due to mobile lipids ([CH2]n at 1.3 ppm, CH3 at 0.9 ppm) were also observed in most spectra. However, given that many of the tumours studied were surrounded by fatty tissues (Figure 1
), and that the MRS voxel was selected to be as large as possible within the tumour, it is likely that these signals contain substantial contributions from lipids external to the tumour, owing to residual sidelobes in the volume selection profiles and respiratory motion. Optimization of the acquisition methodology is required in order to reliably exclude lipid signals from outside the tumour.
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If, in spectra with no discernible tCho,
N is interpreted as an upper limit to the tCho signal amplitude, the distinction between the two responder groups is retained for the five patients who had an early (37 days) post-treatment MRS examination (Figure 4
). The standard error of the mean (SEM) for the four responders in this subgroup includes correction by the inverse t-distribution coefficient for 3 degrees of freedom at significance level 0.05. The non-responder value lies greater than twice the SEM above the mean responder value. In the three responders who had a later post-treatment MRS examination (1435 days) and showed no discernible tCho, the
N:water ratio was greater than the pre-treatment tCho:water ratio value, implying that the absence of signal in these later measurements may be due, in part, to the substantially reduced tumour volumes. The post-:pre-volume ratios in these three patients, patients 3, 8 and 9, were 0.12, 0.37 and 0.13, respectively.
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| Discussion |
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1H MRS signatures appeared broadly similar across the different tumour types and histopathology, although differences may become apparent as data from larger groups of patients are acquired and the aquisition methodology is optimized for improved detection of metabolite signals. In 1H MRS of brain tumours, subtle differences in metabolite signal profiles have been shown to correlate with tumour type [16].
The presence of a tCho resonance in lymphoma and germ cell tumours, as well as in prostate and breast tumours, may reflect an increased cell proliferation, with a decrease in this peak after treatment reflecting a diminished number of viable cells in the neoplasm owing to the action of drugs. Studies of human glioma have shown that the MR-visible choline resonance correlates with tumour cell density [17] and with the Ki-67 proliferative index [18]. It has also been shown in ex vivo studies in man and rat [19, 20] that 1H MR spectra from malignant lymph nodes exhibit, relative to healthy controls, pronounced choline resonances as well as increased metabolite peaks at 2.1 ppm, 2.4 ppm, and 3.54.1 ppm; signals in the latter range were assigned to amino acids. In vivo 1H nuclear MR studies of brain exhibit resonances at
2.1 ppm and
2.4 ppm to glutamine and glutamate.
In the data presented here, any metabolite signals in the 22.5 ppm region of the spectrum are likely to be confounded by co-resonant lipid signals. The resonances observed in the 3.64.0 ppm region are intriguing, however, their identities remain to be elucidated. Since the methodology used for MRS acquisition in this study was not optimized to minimize outer volume contributions, no conclusions are drawn regarding lipid signals in the data reported here in terms of characterizing pathology or response. Nevertheless, reliable detection of mobile lipids within such tumours is potentially of much interest. In vivo MRS studies of brain tumours have shown 1H MRS-visible lipid profiles dependent on tumour type [21]. Ex vivo studies in astrocytomas have indicated a similar pathology dependence [22], and that lipid resonances correlate with increasing necrotic content within high grade tumours [23]. The main lipid resonances observed in 1H MR spectra are those at 1.3 ppm owing to the {-CH2-}n acyl chain "backbone", and 0.9 ppm owing to the terminating CH3 group. Depending on the saturation profile, lipid resonances due to unsaturated bonds may be observed at 2.1 ppm and 5.3 ppm, and polyunsaturated lipids will also contribute a resonance at
2.7 ppm. If the acquisition methodology can be optimized to robustly exclude outer volume contamination in the presence of respiratory motion and intense contaminating signals from adipose tissue, the lipid resonances may be used to determine a lipid saturation profile of the tumour itself from the resonances observed, which may provide another means of characterizing the disease. However, resonances at 2.1 ppm and 2.7 ppm may coincide with signals from other metabolites, complicating interpretation of the spectra. In this respect, in vivo two-dimensional MRS techniques may eventually provide a means of removing these ambiguities and improving metabolite assignments in the acquired data.
Based on the differential changes in signal intensities in the tCho region of the spectrum following chemotherapy, we hypothesize that metabolic changes observable by 1H MRS may be predictive of subsequent clinical response. In this respect, changes are consistent with those observed in the phosphomonoester region of 31P spectra, which consists primarily of PE and PC. In combination with other prognostic factors, such as the International Prognostic Index for lymphoma, biochemical information from MRS may find a role in individual patient management.
The results reported here were obtained from a small heterogeneous patient group and although promising, require substantiation in larger prospective patient series and focus on specific pathologies. In many of the observed spectra, the 3.2 ppm signal was broad, possibly owing to field inhomogeneity and motion due to the respiratory cycle. However, the observed peak may contain contributions from glycerophosphocholine (GPC), as well as PC and unphosphorylated choline (Cho). Although GPC, PC and Cho have discrete resonances over a range of 0.3 ppm [24], these are not distinguishable in vivo. Contributions from metabolites other than tCho to this signal also cannot be discounted. PE is known from 31P studies to be elevated in many extracranial tumours; in the proton spectrum PE has a coupled resonance at approximately 3.2 ppm, which may also be contributing to the observed peak in that region at TE=20 ms.
31P MRS requires specialized hardware beyond that routinely provided by MRI equipment manufacturers, which is optimized for MRI. In contrast, 1H MRS may be performed using the same equipment as MRI, and offers potential gains in sensitivity and spatial resolution. However, as discussed above, there is scope for optimization of the acquisition methodology. In the treatment of rapidly growing tumours, such as high grade NHL, this method may allow early optimization of therapy by detection of chemoresistance soon after treatment has commenced. As well as permitting MRS to be performed in a far wider range of MR centres, the development of 1H MRS for a greater range of pathologies and anatomical locations, as reported here, will facilitate the incorporation of MRS into multifunctional MR examinations, providing complementary metabolic and functional information. MRS methods may prove informative in monitoring Phase I hypothesis-based clinical trials of new anti-cancer treatments that target specific biological end points but are not expected to provide dramatic changes in tumour size.
To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first report of in vivo metabolite signals visible by 1H MRS in human lymphoma and germ cell cancers located outside the head/neck, prostate or breast. The observation of different trends in responders and non-responders suggests that further development of this method may provide a sensitive early indicator of metabolic response to treatment.
| Acknowledgments |
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| Footnotes |
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Current address for A J Schwarz: Department of Neuroimaging (Biology), GlaxoSmithKline S.p.A., Via Fleming 4, 37135 Verona, Italy. ![]()
Received for publication January 24, 2002. Revision received July 31, 2002. Accepted for publication August 16, 2002.
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