Clinico-pathologic Correlative Study of 3T Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy in the Localization of Prostate Cancer

We seek to develop an advanced imaging approach to identifying and localizing prostate cancer. We believe that high field MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) has the potential to do this and we will endeavor to prove this by having patients with prostate cancer pre-operatively undergo a technique called magnetic resonance spectroscopy. After surgery, the microscopic locations of cancer will be compared with the pre-operative images to assess how well the imaging technique succeeds.

The proposed research is enormously relevant to the clinical understanding of early prostate cancer. We propose to test to see whether characteristic patterns of invivo 3T MRSI associated metabolites can be identified in correlation with clinically active tumor reserved on histopathologic analysis of resected specimens. We also plan to demonstrate that 3T MR spectra of prostate cancer will allow for more detailed metabolic assessment with higher sensitivity, specificity and accuracy and publish results established from MR spectra using 1.5T MR units. Functional imaging (eg. molecular imaging such as this) is felt to be the clinical wave of the future for cancer imaging, and if successful, will assume a very major role in the detection, assessment, treatment planning and delivery of drugs, radiation, heat and novel therapeutics in the fight against prostate cancer.