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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. Jun 28, 2017; 9(6): 253-268
Published online Jun 28, 2017. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v9.i6.253
Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging: A molecular imaging tool caught between hope, hype and the real world of “personalized oncology”
Abhishek Mahajan, Sneha S Deshpande, Meenakshi H Thakur
Abhishek Mahajan, Sneha S Deshpande, Department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, Tata Memorial Hospital, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai 400012, Maharashtra, India
Meenakshi H Thakur, Department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai 400012, India
Author contributions: Guarantors of integrity of entire study, all authors; study concepts/study design or data acquisition or data analysis/interpretation, all authors; manuscript drafting or manuscript revision for important intellectual content, all authors; manuscript final version approval, all authors; literature research, all authors; and manuscript editing, all authors; all authors take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Conflict-of-interest statement: I confirm that this manuscript is not published anywhere else and on behalf of all authors, I state that there is no conflict of interests (including none for related to commercial, personal, political, intellectual, or religious interests).
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: Dr. Abhishek Mahajan, MD, Radiodiagnosis, Fellowship Cancer Imaging, MRes, Associate Professor, Department of Radiodiagnosis and Imaging, Tata Memorial Hospital, Tata Memorial Centre, Room No. 127, Dr E Borges Road, Parel, Mumbai 400012, Maharashtra, India. drabhishek.mahajan@yahoo.in
Telephone: +91-99-20210811 Fax: +91-22-24146937
Received: January 2, 2017
Peer-review started: January 4, 2017
First decision: February 17, 2017
Revised: March 24, 2017
Accepted: April 18, 2017
Article in press: April 19, 2017
Published online: June 28, 2017
Processing time: 168 Days and 21.2 Hours
Abstract

“Personalized oncology” is a multi-disciplinary science, which requires inputs from various streams for optimal patient management. Humongous progress in the treatment modalities available and the increasing need to provide functional information in addition to the morphological data; has led to leaping progress in the field of imaging. Magnetic resonance imaging has undergone tremendous progress with various newer MR techniques providing vital functional information and is becoming the cornerstone of “radiomics/radiogenomics”. Diffusion-weighted imaging is one such technique which capitalizes on the tendency of water protons to diffuse randomly in a given system. This technique has revolutionized oncological imaging, by giving vital qualitative and quantitative information regarding tumor biology which helps in detection, characterization and post treatment surveillance of the lesions and challenging the notion that “one size fits all”. It has been applied at various sites with different clinical experience. We hereby present a brief review of this novel functional imaging tool, with its application in “personalized oncology”.

Keywords: Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Molecular imaging, Diffusion-weighted imaging, Tumor biology, Biomarker, Radiomics

Core tip: Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) not only improves the sensitivity and specificity of conventional magnetic resonance imaging but provides information in regard to the tumor microenvironment that is not available from the conventional MR sequences. DWI helps in detection, characterization and post treatment surveillance of the lesions and challenges the notion that “one size fits all”. DWI provides both quantitative and quantitative information regarding tumor biology that makes it a potential reliable radiomics biomarker for personalized oncology.