Bullitt E, Wolthusen P A, Brubaker L, Lin W, Zeng D, Van Dyke T
Department of Surgery, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2006 Mar;27(3):612-9.
The ability to assess tumor malignancy and monitor treatment response noninvasively would be of value to both clinicians and animal investigators. This report describes the MR imaging characteristics of a genetically engineered mouse model of choroid plexus carcinoma (CPC) during tumor growth and progression to malignancy. We assess the ability of vessel tortuosity measurements, as calculated from high-resolution MR angiographic (MRA) images, to detect emerging CPC cancers.
MR images of 9 healthy mice and of 20 CPC mice with precancerous choroid dysplasia or with cancer over a wide range of sizes were analyzed. Two vessel tortuosity measures and a measure of vessel attenuation (vessel count) were calculated from MRA images. Malignancy assessment was based upon a statistical analysis of vessel tortuosity, by using an equation derived from an earlier study of human brain tumor patients.
Choroid dysplasia was correctly judged nonmalignant. On the basis of vessel count, neoangiogenesis could not be detected until cancers were full-blown and had reached a volume of approximately 80 mm3. Vessel tortuosity measurements, however, correctly identified emerging malignancy in lesions larger than 0.3 mm3.
To the best of our knowledge, this report provides the first description of in vivo, MR imaging characteristics of genetically engineered CPC mice during the progression from dysplasia to cancer. Vessel tortuosity measurements offer promise of correctly defining even tiny tumors as malignant.
对于临床医生和动物研究人员而言，能够无创地评估肿瘤恶性程度并监测治疗反应具有重要价值。本报告描述了脉络丛癌（CPC）基因工程小鼠模型在肿瘤生长和发展为恶性肿瘤过程中的磁共振成像特征。我们评估了从高分辨率磁共振血管造影（MRA）图像计算得出的血管迂曲度测量值检测早期CPC癌症的能力。
分析了9只健康小鼠以及20只患有癌前脉络膜发育异常或不同大小癌症的CPC小鼠的磁共振图像。从MRA图像中计算出两种血管迂曲度测量值以及一种血管衰减测量值（血管计数）。恶性程度评估基于对血管迂曲度的统计分析，使用的是从先前对人脑肿瘤患者的研究中得出的一个公式。
脉络膜发育异常被正确判断为非恶性。基于血管计数，直到癌症发展成熟且体积达到约80立方毫米时才能检测到新生血管形成。然而，血管迂曲度测量值能够正确识别出体积大于0.3立方毫米的病变中的早期恶性肿瘤。
据我们所知，本报告首次描述了基因工程CPC小鼠从发育异常发展为癌症过程中的体内磁共振成像特征。血管迂曲度测量有望正确地将即使是微小的肿瘤定义为恶性肿瘤。
