Advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Evaluation of Treated Glioblastoma: A Pictorial Essay

Abstract

MRI plays a key role in the evaluation of post-treatment changes, both in the immediate post-operative period and during follow-up. There are many different treatment’s lines and many different neuroradiological findings according to the treatment chosen and the clinical timepoint at which MRI is performed. Structural MRI is often insufficient to correctly interpret and define treatment-related changes. For that, advanced MRI modalities, including perfusion and permeability imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, are increasingly utilized in clinical practice to characterize treatment effects more comprehensively. This article aims to provide an overview of the role of advanced MRI modalities in the evaluation of treated glioblastomas. For a didactic purpose, we choose to divide the treatment history in three main timepoints: post-surgery, during Stupp (first-line treatment) and at recurrence (second-line treatment). For each, a brief introduction, a temporal subdivision (when useful) or a specific drug-related paragraph were provided. Finally, the current trends and application of radiomics and artificial intelligence (AI) in the evaluation of treated GB have been outlined.

Influence of MRI Follow-Up on Treatment Decisions during Standard Concomitant and Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Patients with Glioblastoma: Is Less More?

“…Perfusion MRI is becoming increasingly important in radiological follow-up protocols for glioblastoma, as perfusion MRI has a high diagnostic accuracy for differentiating tumor progression from treatment effects [6,29,30]. Indeed, the use of perfusion MRI led to less diagnostic uncertainty on follow-up scans in our cohort.…”