Clinical Trial Details
— Status: Recruiting
Administrative data
NCT number |
NCT04192383 |
Other study ID # |
IRB00006761-M2018251 |
Secondary ID |
|
Status |
Recruiting |
Phase |
|
First received |
|
Last updated |
|
Start date |
September 1, 2018 |
Est. completion date |
January 1, 2022 |
Study information
Verified date |
February 2021 |
Source |
Peking University Third Hospital |
Contact |
n/a |
Is FDA regulated |
No |
Health authority |
|
Study type |
Observational
|
Clinical Trial Summary
This study aims to explore the reliability of the combination of functional magnetic
resonance imaging and radiomics for evaluation of the therapeutic efficacy of CyberKnife
stereotactic radiosurgery for spinal tumors. Accurate imaging assessment can help clinicians
plan personalized therapeutic schedules for patients with spinal tumors .
Description:
Spinal tumors may be metastases or primary tumors; the former are more common. About 40% of
cancer patients will have spinal metastasis. Primary spinal tumor is relatively rare,
accounting for only about 8% of spinal tumors. For both metastasis and primary tumor, the aim
of treatment is to reduce pain, maintain or improve neurological function, and maintain or
restore spinal stability.
In patients who cannot undergo surgery or need additional treatment after surgery, radiation
therapy can relieve pain, prolong survival, improve the success rate of surgery, and reduce
risk of metastasis and recurrence. However, the complex anatomy of the spine, and the
numerous important organs around it, makes radiation treatment challenging. High-dose
radiation therapy is necessary for long-term control of the tumor and for prevention of
spinal column instability; however, this is impossible with traditional radiotherapy due to
the presence of the radiosensitive spinal cord. Outcomes therefore tend to be poor for large
and complex lesions. The CyberKnife-a stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) platform
that combines a lightweight linear accelerator, a robotic arm, an imaging system, and a
respiratory tracking system-offers a feasible approach. It can achieve submillimeter
level-precision treatment under imaging guidance.
Currently, the effectiveness of CyberKnife radiosurgery for spinal tumors is decided by
assessing imaging changes, relief of clinical symptoms, and needle biopsy, but all of these
methods have limitations. On imaging, for example, change in lesion volume is used to assess
tumor regression, but the size of a spinal tumor is not easy to measure and, moreover,
decrease in tumor volume after treatment may take time . Post-treatment signal intensity
changes in conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) T1-weighted and T2-weighted
sequences are difficult to interpret, and their relationship with treatment efficacy is also
not clear.
Generally speaking, alterations in microscopic structure and biological activity of the tumor
occur much earlier than changes in gross morphology . Functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) can therefore be more useful than conventional MRI for assessing treatment response.
In fMRI, sequences such as diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI
(DCE-MRI), and diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) reflect functional information of tissues
from different perspectives.
Application of artificial intelligence technology for analysis of medical imaging data is now
an area of intense research. This new method, which is called radiomics, can help in solving
many difficult clinical problems. By extracting a large number of highly representative
quantitative imaging features from high-throughput medical image data, radiomics can help in
evaluating treatment efficacy and predicting prognosis of spinal tumors.
Investigators intend to explore the use of the combination of fMRI and radiomics for
evaluating the effectiveness of CyberKnife radiosurgery for spinal tumors. The method will be
able to evaluate both volume and functional changes in the tumor, and thus provide important
information for planning of individualized therapeutic schedules for patients with spinal
tumors.