This is an open label trial to assess the safety and tolerability of the adult tolerated dose of Hyperpolarized Pyruvate (HP) for metabolic imaging in children with brain tumors who do not require sedation for their MR imaging. Nine patients will receive a single MR imaging examination that includes the acquisition of hyperpolarized 13C metabolic data in combination with anatomic, diffusion, perfusion and lactate edited 1H spectroscopic imaging data. The data will be processed using custom designed software to estimate changes in levels of lactate/pyruvate and to relate them to abnormalities observed in the data from other MR modalities.
The results of this study will provide the safety data required to move this type of metabolic imaging into therapeutic trials to assess the utility of HP 13C lactate/pyruvate as a new surrogate marker of drug tumor penetration and early response to therapy in children with brain tumors.
