Join the upcoming educational webinar of the European Society for Hybrid, Molecular and Translational Imaging (ESHI-MT). Prof.Dr. Katja Pinker-Domenig, member of the EUSOBI Executive Board, is talking about hybrid imaging in breast tumors. The participation is free of charge! Registration is required.

Mark in your calendar: February 21, 2018, 17:00 (CET)

Register here free of charge: ESHI-MT Educational Webinar Online Registration

Abstract:

Cancer development is characterised by several biological capabilities or so-called hallmarks, which comprise sustaining proliferative signalling, evading growth suppressors, resisting cell death, enabling replicative immortality, inducing angiogenesis, and activating invasion and metastasis. With medicine entering the genomic era, personalised approaches towards treatment, which require a deeper understanding of the hallmarks of cancer, are being explored and ultimately will be implemented in patient care. To match advanced therapeutic strategies in the era of personalised medicine, diagnostic tests must be equally multilayered and complex to identify the relevant underlying processes of cancer development and progression.

In this context, multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography/MRI (PET/MRI), which, in addition to morphologic changes, can simultaneously assess a multitude of functional cancer-related processes, have emerged as exceptionally powerful, versatile, and precise imaging techniques. Multiparametric functional imaging of the breast aims to simultaneously quantify and visualise multiple functional processes at the cellular and molecular levels to further elucidate the development and progression of breast cancer and the response to treatment.

There is evidence that multiparametric functional imaging, using different MRI and PET parameters, provides detailed information about the hallmarks of cancer and, thus, improves the diagnostic accuracy and assessment of response to neoadjuvant therapy. Multiparametric functional MRI provides a variety of techniques to assess functional tumour characteristics such as diffusion-weighted imaging, dynamic contrast-enhanced imaging and multi-nuclei magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging. PET/(MRI) detects and quantifies radiolabelled tracer substances, which allows the measurement of specific functional characteristics of breast cancer such as increased glucose uptake, tumour hypoxia or hormonal receptor expression. This talk aims to summarize the current and emerging applications of PET/MRI in breast tumours.

Learning Objectives:

1. To understand the principle of multimodality multiparametric functional imaging of breast tumours with MR/PET.
2. To identify the potential and challenges of multiparametric breast MR/PET using different quantitative functional parameters.
3. To realise the potential of novel tracers for personalised medicine.

For further information about the European Society for Hybrid, Molecular and Translational Imaging (ESHI-MT) and its webinars, please visit their website: eshi-society.org