ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors provide insights into the current and future roles of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in radiation oncology. The interest in MRI in radiation oncology has increased exponentially over the years. One of the challenges in the application of MRI for radiotherapy is to minimize artifacts and distortions associated with specific patient, imaging parameters, and system hardware. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) requires the selection of several imaging parameters according to the contrast and the type of tissue of interest. DWI uses attenuation of the MR signal caused by molecular motion when it is encoded by magnetic field gradients. An alternative surrogate can be derived from internal MR signals. A feasible method is to acquire a navigator that is interleaved with the signals composing the Four-Dimensional (4D) MRI. The common challenge that remains in 4D MRI methods is to further increase the spatiotemporal resolutions by various undersampling techniques while preserving image qualities.
