title: Assessment of early tumor response to cytotoxic chemotherapy with dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound in human breast cancer xenografts.
abstract: There is a strong need to assess early tumor response to chemotherapy in order to avoid adverse effects from unnecessary chemotherapy and allow early transition to second-line therapy. This study was to quantify tumor perfusion changes with dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in the evaluation of early tumor response to cytotoxic chemotherapy. Sixty nude mice bearing with MCF-7 breast cancer were administrated with either adriamycin or sterile saline. CEUS was performed on days 0, 2, 4 and 6 of the treatment, in which time-signal intensity (SI) curves were obtained from the intratumoral and depth-matched liver parenchyma. Four perfusion parameters including peak enhancement (PE), area under the curve of wash-in (WiAUC), wash-in rate (WiR) and wash-in perfusion index (WiPI) were calculated from perfusion curves and normalized with respect to perfusion of adjacent liver parenchyma. Histopathological analysis was conducted to evaluate tumor perfusion, tumor cell density, microvascular density (MVD) and proliferating cell density. Significant decreases of tumor normalized perfusion parameters (i.e., nPE, nWiAUC, nWiR and nWiPI) were noticed between adriamycin-treated and control groups (P<0.01) 2 days after therapy. There were significant differences of tumor volumes between control and treated groups on day 6 (P<0.001) while there were no significant differences in tumor volume on days 0, 2 and 4 (P>0.05). Significant decreases of tumor perfusion, tumor cell density, MVD and proliferating cell density were seen in adrianycin-treated group 2 days after therapy when compared to control group (P<0.001). Dynamic CEUS for quantification of tumor perfusion could be used for early detection of cancer response to cytotoxic chemotherapy prior to notable tumor shrinkage.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Department of Ultrasound, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Jian-Wei
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.forename: Ji-Bin
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Long-Hui
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Rong-Zhen
authors.initials: RZ
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: An-Hua
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jian-Hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019540:Area Under Curve; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D003287:Contrast Media; D004317:Doxorubicin / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007279:Injections, Subcutaneous; D008099:Liver / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D047368:Tumor Burden / Q000187:drug effects; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*; D023041:Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D003287:Contrast Media; D004317:Doxorubicin