title: Quantifying tumor vascular heterogeneity with dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging: a review.
abstract: Tumor microvasculature possesses a high degree of heterogeneity in its structure and function. These features have been demonstrated to be important for disease diagnosis, response assessment, and treatment planning. The exploratory efforts of quantifying tumor vascular heterogeneity with DCE-MRI have led to promising results in a number of studies. However, the methodological implementation in those studies has been highly variable, leading to multiple challenges in data quality and comparability. This paper reviews several heterogeneity quantification methods, with an emphasis on their applications on DCE-MRI pharmacokinetic parametric maps. Important methodological and technological issues in experimental design, data acquisition, and analysis are also discussed, with the current opportunities and efforts for standardization highlighted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
authors.forename: Xiangyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Michael V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Knopp
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003287:Contrast Media; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media