Early tumour response to radiotherapy assessed by magnetic resonance elastography

Abstract

Radiotherapy is widely used to treat cancer. In this study, we used MR elastography to evaluate early tumour response to radiation therapy. A significant increase in stiffness |G*| and elasticity Gd were determined 3 days after orthotopic 4T1 breast tumours were irradiated with a single 8Gy dose, compared to untreated control tumour-bearing mice. The increase in tumour stiffness was associated with an increased macromolecule pool measured by magnetisation transfer, and increased collagen deposition observed histologically.