Quantification of cerebral tissue oxygenation using Magnetic Resonance Imaging for guiding radiotherapy

• Applicant: Dr. Sebastian Domsch
• Subject Area: Medical Physics, Biomedical Technology
• Term: from 2015 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 286491416

The oxygen-extraction-fraction (OEF) is of great clinical interest providing a non-invasive biomarker for brain tissue viability with particular value for the evaluation of diseases such as stroke, Alzheimers disease and different tumor entities. The objective of this project is to develop robust Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) methods for OEF mapping to identify tumor core regions and thereby guide radiotherapy. Compared to existing methods, the major advantage of MRI based OEF mapping is that it can be performed non-invasively and at high spatial resolution. The work program is subdivided into seven milestones (MS) including the optimization of a robust multi-parametric approach for OEF mapping (MS I) and the implementation of a sophisticated tissue model considering diffusion effects to improve the accuracy of the OEF estimates (MS II). Alternatively, two robust strategies will be developed for OEF mapping based on Bayesian inference (MS III) and regularized least-squares regression (MS IV). All methods will be clinically validated (MS V). In case of success, the methods will be applied to planning and monitoring radiotherapy (MS VI). The results will be published in international journals (MS VII).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants