Friday, July 4, 2025 7/4/2025

Advancing MRI technology for early diagnosis of liver metastases

Award Number: R01CA245920
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 12/01/2019
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 11/30/2025

Group Awards By:

View Award Description

Advancing MRI technology for early diagnosis of liver metastases - Abstract Liver is commonly involved in metastatic disease in colorectal cancer (CRC) and knowledge about the presence and location of these tumors affects treatment decisions. In patients with CRC, surgical or ablative treatment of liver metastases improves overall survival. Early diagnosis of colorectal metastases (i.e. while lesions are small) is expected to improve treatment outcomes by increasing the number of subjects that can undergo surgical resection or by identifying subjects early on, when non-surgical options are an alternative treatment. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is regarded as the most effective imaging modality for the detection and characterization of liver neoplasms; T2-weighted (T2w) and T1-weighted (T1w) images - combined with administration of a gadolinium chelate agent and multi-phase dynamic contrast enhancement (DCE) - are the foundational acquisitions used for the detection and characterization of liver tumors. However, challenges remain for the detection and characterization of small lesions due to factors including inadequate spatial resolution, partial volume effects, physiological motion, and variations in timing of contrast arrival in DCE imaging. In this academic-industrial partnership the scientific and engineering teams at the University of Arizona and Siemens Medical Solutions are coming together to develop robust radial MRI techniques for T2w/T2 mapping and DCE imaging of the liver to improve detection and characterization of small tumors with the goal of bringing these techniques to routine clinical practice. The proposed work is based on a radial turbo spin- echo technique pioneered by the team at the University of Arizona for abdominal imaging and a radial stack-of-stars technique with continuous acquisition for DCE imaging. The specific aims of the partnership are: Aim 1: To develop radial T2w acquisition and reconstruction techniques with efficient full coverage of the liver for small tumor detection and accurate T2 quantification for tumor characterization. Aim 2: To implement a self-navigated 3D radial stack-of-stars technique for continuous acquisition of DCE data and retrospective reconstruction of the dynamic phases. Aim 3: To conduct a clinical evaluation of the techniques from Aims 1 and 2 against conventional T2w and DCE techniques. Aim 4: To streamline translation of the new radial methods to the clinic by developing a computationally efficient reconstruction pipeline. The endpoints of our study include technical advances in MRI acquisitions that markedly overcome limitations of current liver MRI for the diagnosis of early metastases. We expect our proposal to yield technology improvements that will increase precision of care and outcomes in patients with metastatic malignancies, in particular those with colorectal cancer.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $374,276 )
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	845 N PARK AVE RM 538	TUCSON	AZ	85721	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	001	5	4/17/2024	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$19,700
2024	2024	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	845 N PARK AVE RM 538	TUCSON	AZ	85721	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	5	11/22/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$354,576
														Subtotal = $374,276

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $420,140 )
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	845 N PARK AVE RM 538	TUCSON	AZ	85721	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	001	4	5/1/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$34,298
2023	2023	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	4	12/19/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$385,842
														Subtotal = $420,140

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $530,493 )
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	3	11/23/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$419,809
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	001	3	11/24/2021	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$67,377
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	002	3	5/20/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$37,318
2022	2022	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	003	3	7/14/2022	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$5,989
														Subtotal = $530,493

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $536,670 )
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	001	2	1/28/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$26,834
2021	2021	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	2	12/17/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$509,836
														Subtotal = $536,670

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $495,557 )
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	001	1	1/23/2020	NEW	$10,671
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	000	1	11/29/2019	NEW	$445,537
2020	2020	UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA	888 N EUCLID AVE RM 510	TUCSON	AZ	85719	PIMA	USA	Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research	002	1	8/19/2020	SUPPLEMENT FOR EXPANSION	$39,349
														Subtotal = $495,557

Grand Total All Awards = $2,357,136

Top

All Categories

About

Search

Reports

Data Submission

Award Information

Advancing MRI technology for early diagnosis of liver metastases

Award Number: R01CA245920

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 12/01/2019

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 11/30/2025

Federal Websites

Department of Health & Human Services

HHS Operating Divisions

HHS Staff Divisions

Download A Document Viewer