MR only radiotherapy planning
Research type
Research Study
Full title
MR only radiotherapy planning: a feasibility study
IRAS ID
176782
Contact name
Martin Pickles
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
The purpose of this research is to develop a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) ‘only’ pathway for radiotherapy planning. Traditionally, radiotherapy planning was undertaken with only computed tomography (CT) images. CT images provide information regarding the electron density. This information is used to help determine the necessary radiation dose required for the prescribed radiotherapy treatment. However, while CT images are very good at looking at certain types of tissue (bone, lung) these images are less useful when considering soft tissue.
Many tumours develop in soft tissue e.g. prostate, brain and cervix. MR images provide excellent soft tissue contrast; consequently, tumours can be better demonstrated on MR than CT. In recent years this has led to the development of CT/MR radiotherapy planning whereby CT provides the electron density information and MR delineates the treatment tissue. However, this technique requires the two sets of images to be fused (registered). This registration process can introduce errors into the radiotherapy planning process. Additionally, there are extra costs (MRI scan and registration) related to this CT/MR technique.
Recently, a number of research groups have demonstrated it is possible to produce synthetic electron density information from MRI data alone. Consequently, the intention of this research is to explore the possibility of MR only radiotherapy planning and to compare the resulting radiotherapy plans against CT derived radiotherapy plans.
REC name
London - Surrey Borders Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/LO/0644
Date of REC Opinion
15 Apr 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion