Cancer imaging

Bioxydyn provides advanced functional MRI biomarkers in oncology, using techniques such as diffusion MRI and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI, and is the leading CRO offering tumor hypoxia imaging to inform therapy effectiveness or characterise tumour physiology.


We are world-leading in the use of Oxygen-enhanced MRI (OE-MRI), which can be applied to monitor the delivery of oxygen to tumours. This is of particular utility, as tumour oxygenation levels are known to impact on disease progression and on response to therapy. Our method for identifying and imaging tumour hypoxia has been shown to be sensitive to drug and radiotherapy effects. Bioxydyn personnel lead the field in developing and deploying OE-MRI.

Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) is recognised by the Quantitative Imaging Biomarkers Alliance (QIBA) as a functional imaging biomarker of angiogenesis and vascular function in cancer. Bioxydyn personnel bring decades of experience to the study of cancer using DCE-MRI.

Diffusion MRI (apparent diffusion coefficient, ADC) detects changes in water diffusion, which is a sensitive marker for cancer. These changes are typically associated with the earliest stages of biological response to treatment and so can act as early markers of the influence of intervention.


Publications

O'Connor JPB, Tessyman V, Little RA, Babur M, Forster D, Latif A, Cheung S, Lipowska-Bhalla G, Higgins GS, Asselin MC, Parker GJM, Williams KJ, Combined Oxygen-Enhanced MRI and Perfusion Imaging Detect Hypoxia Modification from Banoxantrone and Atovaquone and Track Their Differential Mechanisms of Action. Cancer Res Commun. 2024 Oct 1;4(10):2565-2574.

Dubec MJ, Price J, Berks M, Gaffney J, Little RA, Porta N, Sridharan N, Datta A, McHugh DJ, Hague CJ, Cheung S, Manoharan P, van Herk M, Choudhury A, Matthews JC, Parker GJM, Buckley DL, Harrington KJ, McPartlin A, O'Connor JPB, Oxygen-enhanced MRI detects incidence, onset and heterogeneity of radiation-induced hypoxia modification in HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2024 Aug 15;:.

Sridharan N, Salem A, Little RA, Tariq M, Cheung S, Dubec MJ, Faivre-Finn C, Parker GJM, Porta N, O'Connor JPB, Measuring repeatability of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI biomarkers improves evaluation of biological response to radiotherapy in lung cancer. Eur Radiol. 2024 Aug 9;:.

Shalom ES, Kim H, van der Heijden RA, Ahmed Z, Patel R, Hormuth DA 2nd, DiCarlo JC, Yankeelov TE, Sisco NJ, Dortch RD, Stokes AM, Inglese M, Grech-Sollars M, Toschi N, Sahoo P, Singh A, Verma SK, Rathore DK, Kazerouni AS, Partridge SC, LoCastro E, Paudyal R, Wolansky IA, Shukla-Dave A, Schouten P, Gurney-Champion OJ, Jiřík R, Macíček O, Bartoš M, Vitouš J, Das AB, Kim SG, Bokacheva L, Mikheev A, Rusinek H, Berks M, Hubbard Cristinacce PL, Little RA, Cheung S, O'Connor JPB, Parker GJM, Moloney B, LaViolette PS, Bobholz S, Duenweg S, Virostko J, Laue HO, Sung K, Nabavizadeh A, Saligheh Rad H, Hu LS, Sourbron S, Bell LC, Fathi Kazerooni A, The ISMRM Open Science Initiative for Perfusion Imaging (OSIPI): Results from the OSIPI-Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced challenge. Magn Reson Med. 2024 May;91(5):1803-1821.

Dubec MJ, Buckley DL, Berks M, Clough A, Gaffney J, Datta A, McHugh DJ, Porta N, Little RA, Cheung S, Hague C, Eccles CL, Hoskin PJ, Bristow RG, Matthews JC, van Herk M, Choudhury A, Parker GJM, McPartlin A, O'Connor JPB, First-in-human technique translation of oxygen-enhanced MRI to an MR Linac system in patients with head and neck cancer. Radiother Oncol. 2023 Jun;183:109592.

Tadimalla S, Wilson DJ, Shelley D, Bainbridge G, Saysell M, Mendichovszky IA, Graves MJ, Guthrie JA, Waterton JC, Parker GJM, Sourbron SP, Bias, Repeatability and Reproducibility of Liver T(1) Mapping With Variable Flip Angles. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2022 Oct;56(4):1042-1052.

Salem A, Little RA, Latif A, Featherstone AK, Babur M, Peset I, Cheung S, Watson Y, Tessyman V, Mistry H, Ashton G, Behan C, Matthews JC, Asselin MC, Bristow RG, Jackson A, Parker GJM, Faivre-Finn C, Williams KJ, O'Connor JPB, Oxygen-enhanced MRI Is Feasible, Repeatable, and Detects Radiotherapy-induced Change in Hypoxia in Xenograft Models and in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer. Clin Cancer Res. 2019 Jul 1;25(13):3818-3829.

Jayson GC, Zhou C, Backen A, Horsley L, Marti-Marti K, Shaw D, Mescallado N, Clamp A, Saunders MP, Valle JW, Mullamitha S, Braun M, Hasan J, McEntee D, Simpson K, Little RA, Watson Y, Cheung S, Roberts C, Ashcroft L, Manoharan P, Scherer SJ, Del Puerto O, Jackson A, O'Connor JPB, Parker GJM, Dive C, Plasma Tie2 is a tumor vascular response biomarker for VEGF inhibitors in metastatic colorectal cancer. Nat Commun. 2018 Nov 7;9(1):4672.

O'Connor JPB, Robinson SP, Waterton JC, Imaging tumour hypoxia with oxygen-enhanced MRI and BOLD MRI. Br J Radiol. 2019 Mar;92(1095):20180642.

Little RA, Jamin Y, Boult JKR, Naish JH, Watson Y, Cheung S, Holliday KF, Lu H, McHugh DJ, Irlam J, West CML, Betts GN, Ashton G, Reynolds AR, Maddineni S, Clarke NW, Parker GJM, Waterton JC, Robinson SP, O'Connor JPB, Mapping Hypoxia in Renal Carcinoma with Oxygen-enhanced MRI: Comparison with Intrinsic Susceptibility MRI and Pathology. Radiology. 2018 Sep;288(3):739-747.

Little RA, Barjat H, Hare JI, Jenner M, Watson Y, Cheung S, Holliday K, Zhang W, O'Connor JPB, Barry ST, Puri S, Parker GJM, Waterton JC, Evaluation of dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI biomarkers for stratified cancer medicine: How do permeability and perfusion vary between human tumours? Magn Reson Imaging. 2018 Feb;46:98-105.

Featherstone AK, O'Connor JPB, Little RA, Watson Y, Cheung S, Babur M, Williams KJ, Matthews JC, Parker GJM, Data-driven mapping of hypoxia-related tumor heterogeneity using DCE-MRI and OE-MRI. Magn Reson Med. 2018 Apr;79(4):2236-2245.

O'Connor JP, Aboagye EO, Adams JE, Aerts HJ, Barrington SF, Beer AJ, [...], Waterton JC, Imaging biomarker roadmap for cancer studies. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2017 Mar;14(3):169-186.

O'Connor JP, Rose CJ, Waterton JC, Carano RA, Parker GJ, Jackson A, Imaging intratumor heterogeneity: role in therapy response, resistance, and clinical outcome. Clin Cancer Res. 2015 Jan 15;21(2):249-57.

Walker-Samuel S, Ramasawmy R, Torrealdea F, Rega M, Rajkumar V, Johnson SP, Richardson S, Gonçalves M, Parkes HG, Arstad E, Thomas DL, Pedley RB, Lythgoe MF, Golay X, In vivo imaging of glucose uptake and metabolism in tumors. Nat Med. 2013 Aug;19(8):1067-72.

Linnik IV, Scott ML, Holliday KF, Woodhouse N, Waterton JC, O'Connor JP, Barjat H, Liess C, Ulloa J, Young H, Dive C, Hodgkinson CL, Ward T, Roberts D, Mills SJ, Thompson G, Buonaccorsi GA, Cheung S, Jackson A, Naish JH, Parker GJ, Noninvasive tumor hypoxia measurement using magnetic resonance imaging in murine U87 glioma xenografts and in patients with glioblastoma. Magn Reson Med. 2014 May;71(5):1854-62.

Leach MO, Morgan B, Tofts PS, Buckley DL, Huang W, Horsfield MA, Chenevert TL, Collins DJ, Jackson A, Lomas D, Whitcher B, Clarke L, Plummer R, Judson I, Jones R, Alonzi R, Brunner T, Koh DM, Murphy P, Waterton JC, Parker G, Graves MJ, Scheenen TW, Redpath TW, Orton M, Karczmar G, Huisman H, Barentsz J, Padhani A, Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres Imaging Network Steering Committee., Imaging vascular function for early stage clinical trials using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. Eur Radiol. 2012 Jul;22(7):1451-64.

O'Connor JP, Jackson A, Parker GJ, Roberts C, Jayson GC, Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in clinical trials of antivascular therapies. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2012 Feb 14;9(3):167-77.

O'Connor JP, Naish JH, Parker GJ, Waterton JC, Watson Y, Jayson GC, Buonaccorsi GA, Cheung S, Buckley DL, McGrath DM, West CM, Davidson SE, Roberts C, Mills SJ, Mitchell CL, Hope L, Ton NC, Jackson A, Preliminary study of oxygen-enhanced longitudinal relaxation in MRI: a potential novel biomarker of oxygenation changes in solid tumors. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2009 Nov 15;75(4):1209-15.

Jones CK, Schlosser MJ, van Zijl PC, Pomper MG, Golay X, Zhou J, Amide proton transfer imaging of human brain tumors at 3T. Magn Reson Med. 2006 Sep;56(3):585-92.

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