This project is no longer listed in the FindAPhD database
and may not be available.
Sourbron & Buckley have an international reputation in the development of quantitative imaging biomarkers measured with functional MRI and CT. Examples include tumour blood flow, capillary permeability, and blood & cell volume fraction. A recently installed research PET-CT at LTHT allows direct comparison of CT and PET imaging biomarkers. The purpose of this project is to integrate these tools into a framework using a number of existing radiotherapy studies, and evaluate their potential in terms of treatment planning and follow-up. MRI & CT biomarkers will be compared against a range of PET biomarkers such as glycolytic activity, hypoxia, apoptosis, cellular proliferation and lipid metabolism. Relevant studies focus on head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (Prestwich), lung, lower oesophageal and pancreatic carcinoma (Scarsbrook), high dose rate brachytherapy in the prostate (Henry), and anal cancer (Sebag-Montefiore). The framework will also be applied to medical oncology studies evaluating a variety of therapies: LANTERN (Dodwell, brain mets), CHERNEC (Dall, breast) and STAR (Brown, RCC).
Funding Notes:
The PhD is funded either by Cancer Research UK (http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/) or Yorkshire Cancer Research (http://www.yorkshirecancerresearch.org.uk/). The PhD is hosted by the Division of Medical Physics (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/light/research/medical-physics/), in the Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics of the University of Leeds -- in collaboration with the Cancer Research UK centre of excellence in Leeds (http://www.cancerresearchukcentre.leeds.ac.uk). The project is supervised in Medical Physics by Dr. Steven Sourbron and Prof. David Buckley (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/light/staff/by-division/#Medical-Physics), and from the clinical side by Prof. David Sebag-Montefiore (Chair of Clinical Oncology). Dr. Andrew Scarsbrook is a key collaborator in Radiology with expertise in PET-CT.
References:
[1] S Sourbron and D.L. Buckley. On the scope and interpretation of the Tofts model for DCE-MRI. Magn. Reson. Med. 66: 735-745 (2011).
[2] S Sourbron, M. Ingrisch, A. Siefert, et al. Quantification of cerebral blood flow, cerebral blood volume and blood-brain-barrier leakage with DCE-MRI. Magn. Reson. Med. 62: 205--217 (2009).
[3] S.B. Donaldson, C.M.L. West, S.E. Davidson, B.M. Carrington, G. Hutchison, A.P. Jones, S.P. Sourbron, D.L. Buckley. A comparison of tracer kinetic models for T1-weighted dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI: application in carcinoma of the cervix, Magn Reson Med, 63, 691-700, 2010.
[4] Taylor FG, Quirke P, Heald RJ, Moran B, Blomqvist L, Swift I, Sebag-Montefiore DJ, Tekkis P, Brown G. Preoperative High-resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging Can Identify Good Prognosis Stage I, II, and III Rectal Cancer Best Managed by Surgery Alone: A Prospective, Multicenter, European Study That Recruited Consecutive Patients With Rectal Cancer. Annals of Surgery 2011 253:711-719
[5] Sebag-Montefiore D, Stephens R, Steele R, et al. A randomised trial comparing pre-operative radiotherapy and selective post-operative chemo-radiotherapy in rectal cancer. Results from the Medical Research Council CR07 and National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group C016 trial. Lancet 2009 373:811-20