ABSTRACT
Cancer imaging is moving from purely anatomical evaluation of tumours to a global assessment of tumour phenotype and heterogeneity, and recent advances in functional MRI (FMRI) may enable the evaluation of tumour characteristics hitherto unrevealed by conventional techniques, providing clinical decision-making tools for improved diagnosis, prognostication, therapy planning, and response assessment. Many different FMRI techniques are available on magnetic resonance (MR) systems including dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI), dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced MRI (DSC-MRI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI), blood oxygenation level–dependent MR imaging (BOLD-MRI), MR lymphography, and MR elastography (MRE). These imaging techniques are able to spatially map key cancer hallmarks and can also provide quantitative biomarkers for the objective assessment of physiological and molecular processes in malignant neoplasms. This chapter will review recent emerging MR-based imaging techniques and their role in the evaluation of cancer.
