Measurement of tumor blood flow by deuterium NMR and the effects of modifiers.

Abstract

Tumor metabolism is directly coupled to tumor blood flow (TBF) and both metabolism and blood flow may be determinants of tumor response to treatment. Since NMR has been used extensively to monitor tumor metabolism noninvasively, development of NMR-based methods for TBF measurement was motivated by the desire to examine the roles tumor metabolism and blood flow may play as determinants of therapeutic response. The concept of using deuterated water as an NMR-detectable, flow-limited tracer for the measurement of tissue blood flow (or capillary perfusion) was introduced in 1987 by Ackerman and coworkers (Proc. Natl., Acad. Sci., USA 84, 4099-4102 (1987)). Since that time, methods have been devised using both spectroscopic and imaging detection for TBF measurement based on either clearance or uptake of deuterated water. In general, the clearance methods are more straightforward to implement, while the uptake methods are less invasive to the tumor. When used with appropriate caution, both approaches yield reliable results. To date, these methods have been applied in a relatively limited number of animal tumors. However, their use is increasing and some of these methods ultimately should be applicable in human tumors.