FAZA PET/MRI Pancreas

The success of hypoxia-targeted therapies has so far been limited, a fact widely attributed to the absence of a reliable imaging biomarker for hypoxia that could easily be implemented into a routine clinical workflow. A compelling study has found the presence of hypoxia in pancreatic tumors using FAZA-PET imaging. The data derived from this alternative dual-imaging approach can be used to establish a patient-specific perfusion-to-hypoxia mapping, accounting for differences in tumour metabolisms. This technique was recently validated in a pre-clinical FAZA-PET/CE-MRI study of mice with orthotopically-implanted pancreatic patient-derived tumour xenografts. The purpose of this study is to look for hypoxia in tumours using a PET scan in combination with MRI. The use of PET/MRI scans to measure hypoxia may be better and simpler than the approaches used previously. This study will assess whether or not PET/MRI scans can provide useful information about hypoxia in pancreatic cancer. Additionally, a recent study at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre found varying levels of hypoxia in patients with pancreatic tumors, providing a rationale for incorporating hypoxia imaging and patient-specific treatment adaptation into the clinical management of pancreatic cancer.