Monitoring of VX2 tumor growth in rabbit liver using T2-weighted and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging at 1.5T

This study aimed to investigate the VX2 tumor growth in rabbit liver using T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) and dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). Five New Zealand white (NZW) rabbits were implanted with VX2 cell suspension in liver. Afterwards, MRI was performed 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after tumor implantation. A 1.5T clinical MRI scanner was used to perform scans. After 3-plane localizer, T1 weighted imaging (T1WI), T2WI, and DCE-MRI using a three-dimensional gradient echo pulse sequence was performed. After 4 pre-contrast images were acquired, each rabbit was injected i.v. with 0.1 mmol/kg Dotarem. The total scan time after Dotarem administration was 30 minutes. All acquired images were analyzed using ImageJ software. Several regions of interest were selected from the rims of tumor, liver, and muscle. The enhancement ratio (ER) was calculated by dividing the MR signal after Dotarem injection to the MR signal before Dotarem injection. The maximum ER (ER_max) value of tumor for each rabbit was observed right after the Dotarem injection. The T2W MR signal intensities (T2W_SI) and the ER_max values obtained 7, 14, 21 and 28 days after tumor implantation were analyzed with a linear regression algorithm. Both T2W_SI and ER_max of tumors increased with time. The changes for T2W_SI and ER_max of tumors between 7 and 28 days after tumor implantation were 32.66% and 18.14%, respectively. T2W_SI is more sensitive than ER_max for monitoring the growth of VX2 tumor in a rabbit liver model.