Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. Jan 28, 2015; 7(1): 1-6
Published online Jan 28, 2015. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v7.i1.1
Treatment assessment of radiotherapy using MR functional quantitative imaging
Zheng Chang, Chunhao Wang
Zheng Chang, Chunhao Wang, Department of Radiation Oncology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, United States
Author contributions: Chang Z and Wang C wrote the paper; Chang Z approved the version to be published.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors have no conflict of interest related to the manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Zheng Chang, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, Duke University, Duke University Rd, Durham, NC 27710, United States. zheng.chang@duke.edu
Telephone: +1-919-6812608 Fax: +1-919-6817183
Received: October 31, 2014
Peer-review started: October 31, 2014
First decision: November 14, 2014
Revised: November 24, 2014
Accepted: December 29, 2014
Article in press: December 31, 2014
Published online: January 28, 2015
Processing time: 74 Days and 17.6 Hours
Abstract

Recent developments in magnetic resonance (MR) functional quantitative imaging have made it a potentially powerful tool to assess treatment response in radiation therapy. With its abilities to capture functional information on underlying tissue characteristics, MR functional quantitative imaging can be valuable in assessing treatment response and as such to optimize therapeutic outcome. Various MR quantitative imaging techniques, including diffusion weighted imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, MR spectroscopy and dynamic contrast enhanced imaging, have been investigated and found useful for assessment of radiotherapy. However, various aspects including data reproducibility, interpretation of biomarkers, image quality and data analysis impose challenges on applications of MR functional quantitative imaging in radiotherapy assessment. All of these challenging issues shall be addressed to help us understand whether MR functional quantitative imaging is truly beneficial and contributes to future development of radiotherapy. It is evident that individualized therapy is the future direction of patient care. MR functional quantitative imaging might serves as an indispensable tool towards this promising direction.

Keywords: MR functional quantitative imaging; Radiation therapy; Treatment assessment

Core tip: Treatment assessment using magnetic resonance (MR) functional quantitative imaging is the process of using such technique before and/or during and/or after the treatment course to evaluate the changes of functional information. In the area of radiation oncology, MR functional quantitative imaging can be used to quantify radiation-induced functional changes of both radiotherapy targets and critical organs. This article briefly reviews and discusses the basic principles of MR functional quantitative imaging, recent status, critical challenges and future perspectives on radiotherapy assessment. Future clinical trials and research works are needed to further develop MR functional quantitative imaging, towards the goal of individualized radiation therapy.