Functional imaging in ALK neuroblastoma v2.0 4th November 2013

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Pilot institutional study exploring the feasibility of functional magnetic resonance imaging in children and teenagers with refractory/relapsed neuroblastoma with genetic alterations in ALK.

• IRAS ID

  136010

• Contact name

  Fernando Carceller

• Contact email

  fernando.carceller@rmh.nhs.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

• Duration of Study in the UK

  3 years, 6 months, 1 days

• Research summary

  The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of performing functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in children and teenagers with neuroblastoma to characterize the imaging phenotype of those harbouring genomic alterations (mutations, rearrangements or amplifications) in the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene compared to those without alterations in the ALK gene. Specifically the study will test the hypothesis, generated pre-clinically, that ALK mutated or amplified neuroblastomas have a lower R2* than tumours without ALK aberrations
  
  In the sub–study, a subset of children/teenagers with neuroblastomas harbouring genomic alterations in ALK (ALK+) who are enrolled in the phase I trial of the novel ALK-inhibitor LDK378 at Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (RM) (CCR number 3961), functional MRI will also be evaluated as a method to characterize changes in the imaging phenotype associated with inhibition of ALK. This will test the hypothesis that R2* is a pharmacodynamic biomarker of response in ALK mutated or amplified neuroblastoma tumours

• REC name

  London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  14/LO/0749

• Date of REC Opinion

  7 Jul 2014

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion