Current Opportunities and Challenges of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, Positron Emission Tomography, and Mass Spectrometry Imaging for Mapping Cancer Metabolism In Vivo

Figure 1

3D [1-¹³C]Pyruvate dynamic nuclear hyperpolarization magnetic resonance spectroscopy (DNP-MRS) imaging in a patient with prostate cancer. The upper panel shows an axial T2-weighted images and corresponding spectral array with the area of putative tumor highlighted by pink shading. A region of tumor was observed on the T2-weighted images (red arrows). A region of relatively high hyperpolarized [1-¹³C]lactate was observed in the same location as the abnormalities that had been observed on the multiparametric 1H staging exam. The lower panels show axial T2 images with and without metabolite overlays for different axial slices from the same patient. The colored regions in these overlays have a ratio of [1-¹³C]lactate/[1-¹³C]pyruvate ≥0.2. These demonstrated a large volume of bilateral cancer. Reprinted with permission from [106]. Copyright 2013 American Association for the Advancement of Science.