Assessment of early tumor response to cytotoxic chemotherapy with dynamic contrast-enhanced ultrasound in human breast cancer xenografts

PLoS One. 2013;8(3):e58274. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058274. Epub 2013 Mar 1.

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.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology*
  • Area Under Curve
  • Breast Neoplasms / blood supply*
  • Breast Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging*
  • Breast Neoplasms / drug therapy
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology
  • Cell Proliferation / drug effects
  • Contrast Media
  • Doxorubicin / pharmacology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Injections, Subcutaneous
  • Liver / diagnostic imaging
  • Mice
  • Mice, Nude
  • Neovascularization, Pathologic
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Tumor Burden / drug effects
  • Ultrasonography / methods*
  • Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Contrast Media
  • Doxorubicin

Grants and funding

This research was supported National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30900369, No. 81071168 and No.81271578), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (NO. 09ykpy56), Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry and Funds for Pearl River Science & Technology Star of Guangzhou City. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.