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MRI surveillance of cancer cell fate in a brain metastasis model after early radiotherapy
Author(s) -
Murrell Donna H.,
Zarghami Niloufar,
Jensen Michael D.,
Dickson Fiona,
Chambers Ann F.,
Wong Eugene,
Foster Paula J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.26541
Subject(s) - radiation therapy , medicine , cancer , breast cancer , cancer cell , brain metastasis , clonogenic assay , metastasis , magnetic resonance imaging , pathology , cancer research , oncology , cell , radiology , biology , genetics
Purpose Incidence of brain metastasis attributed to breast cancer is increasing and prognosis is poor. It is thought that disseminated dormant cancer cells persist in metastatic organs and may evade treatments, thereby facilitating a mechanism for recurrence. Radiotherapy is used to treat brain metastases clinically, but assessment has been limited to macroscopic tumor volumes detectable by clinical imaging. Here, we use cellular MRI to understand the concurrent responses of metastases and nonproliferative or slowly cycling cancer cells to radiotherapy. Methods MRI cell tracking was used to investigate the impact of early cranial irradiation on the fate of individual iron‐labeled cancer cells and outgrowth of breast cancer brain metastases in the human MDA‐MB‐231‐BR‐HER2 cell model. Results Early whole‐brain radiotherapy significantly reduced the outgrowth of metastases from individual disseminated cancer cells in treated animals compared to controls. However, the numbers of nonproliferative iron‐retaining cancer cells in the brain were not significantly different. Conclusions Radiotherapy, when given early in cancer progression, is effective in preventing the outgrowth of solitary cancer cells to brain metastases. Future studies of the nonproliferative cancer cells’ clonogenic potentials are warranted, given that their persistent presence suggests that they may have evaded treatment. Magn Reson Med 78:1506–1512, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine