Hyperpolarised 13C-Pyruvate MRI study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
13C-pyruvate DNP hyperpolarised magnetic resonance imaging metabolic assessment of disease
IRAS ID
205839
Contact name
Shonit Punwani
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2016/10/37 , UCL Data Protection Registration
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Metabolic changes related to disease are the precursor to anatomical changes in tissues. Currently our imaging methods routinely used in clinical practice look at the anatomical changes. Whilst these methods are very helpful in making clinical decisions, they are far from being perfect. We miss a lot of early disease because these methods are not sensitive enough. We also sometimes do not know whether what we are looking at is disease or not. And finally we don't really know whether when we see disease it is an aggressive type of disease or non-aggressive.
Hyperpolarised MRI is a new tool that may allow us to address these deficiencies in our current imaging technology. The process of hyperpolarisation allows the production of an injectable solution that can produce signal on a standard MRI scanner that tells us about the metabolism occurring at a particular location. This technology has only just become available for clinical use. We are one of a handful of centres in the world set to evaluate its application in a variety of diseases.
The initial stages of evaluation require us to refine and develop our imaging protocols so that we can assess whether we get consistent results and also so that we can look at where best the potential future clinical use of this technology should be targeted.
Within this application we aim to try out hyperpolarised MRI in a number of different cancers and also see whether it is useful to assess cardiac metabolism. We will be using 13C-labelled metabolites (for this study 13C-pyruvate) which will allow us to interrogate glucose metabolism. The derangement of glucose metabolism is common to a number of disease processes.
REC name
London - Harrow Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0431
Date of REC Opinion
6 Jul 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion