MULTIMODAL IMAGING IN ONCOLOGY RESEARCH: MRI AND BIOLUMINESCENCE STUDIES IN A MURINE MODEL OF PANCREATIC CANCER

Adenocarcinoma of the pancreas is one of the most aggressive human malignancies. Better models to study tumor behavior in vivo are needed for the development of more effective therapeutics. In the attempt to create clinically relevant models for studying novel treatments directed against pancreatic cancer, we defined a methodology to measure the effect of antineoplastic compounds in established human pancreatic cancer orthotopic xenografts using different luciferized pancreatic cancer cell lines (MiaPaCa-2 and Capan-1) to allow both magnetic resonance and bioluminescence imaging of animals in vivo. Furthermore advanced MRI techniques, such as DWI, were applied to evaluate early response to therapy.