Functional MRI and genomics paper from Lyngs group published in Cancer Research
In a paper recently published in Cancer Research (Impact factor 7.9) Cathinka Halle from Heidi Lyngs group and colleagues identified prognostic features in DCE-MRI images of cervical cancers and showed that they reflected a transcriptional program regulated under hypoxia. This program included a gene signature with prognostic impact in an independent validation cohort, thus pointing to hypoxia regulated pathways that may promote cancer aggressiveness.
Tumor hypoxia is a known adverse factor in many types of cancer, including cervical cancer, and would be valuable to implement in clinical decision-making. This work is the first to show that DCE-MRI provides information about hypoxia regulated gene expression, encouraging the use of DCE-MRI as a tool to handle hypoxia related chemoradioresistance in cervical cancer.
The study is a part of an ongoing collaboration project between Departments of Radiation Biology (Heidi Lyng), Medical Physics (Eirik Malinen), and Gynaecological Oncology (Gunnar Kristensen), aiming to implement functional imaging in the radiotherapy planning of patients with cervical cancer.
Links:
Hypoxia-induced gene expression in chemoradioresistant cervical cancer revealed by dynamic contrast enhanced MRI.
Halle C, Andersen E, Lando M, Aarnes EK, Hasvold G, Holden M, Syljuasen R, Sundfør K, Kristensen GB, Holm R, Malinen E, Lyng H.
Cancer Res. 2012 Aug 13. [Epub ahead of print]
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