Next-Generation Whole-Body MRI for Detection and Assessment of Therapy Response in Bone Lesions

Project Summary Bone lesions from solid tumors such as breast, prostate, or kidney cancers, tumors originating in the bone marrow such as multiple myeloma (MM), or other non-malignant musculoskeletal pathologies can occur anywhere in the skeleton. These bone lesions cause pain and spinal cord compressions, leading to pathologic fractures and paralysis, thereby diminishing the patient's quality of life. Current therapies rely on diagnosing these bone lesions by whole-body X-ray or bone scans, which only identify them at advanced stages. While whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WBMRI) is recommended for pretreatment assessment (e.g., in MM), MRI is often limited to spine and pelvic regions in practice to minimize patient discomfort, compromised image quality from geometric distortion, and high costs due to prolonged acquisition times. To address this unmet clinical need, we developed a novel WBMRI technique: `Dual-Echo T2-weighted acquisition for Enhanced Conspicuity of Tumors' (DETECT), for improved lesion visualization by simultaneously separating the confounding signals of fat and fluid. Compared to WBMRI with diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), single- shot DETECT increased lesion detection (>40%) in considerably shorter scan times (