UCSF

The accurate detection and characterization of cancerous tissue is still a major problem for the clinical management of individual prostate cancer patients and for monitoring their response to therapy. ρ_1 (TR times to times points per second over T1 ratio) of urea, pyruvate, lactate, and alanine, also the amount urea and pyruvate perfusion, and conversion constant between pyruvate to lactate(Kpl) and pyruvate to alanine(Kpa) are important parameters in different organs including cancerous and healthy tissues. ρ_1 of urea in kidneys, prostate cancerous tissues, and liver are measured 0.13(1/s), 0.15(1/s), and 0.075(1/s), respectively and ρ_1 of pyruvate in kidneys, liver cancer and healthy part of liver is 0.08(1/s), 0.13(1/s), and 0.064(1/s), respectively with TR=250ms. Kpl in cancerous tissues are more than 0.44(1/s) which is significantly higher than Kpl of metabolites in healthy tissues (Kpl = 0.028(1/s)) with p value less than 0.001. This Kpl is proportional to the lactate signal to pyruvate signal ratio with Correlation Coefficient=0.95. High perfusion amount of the accumulation of pyruvate, lactate, and alanine in compare to urea perfusion has been seen in cancerous tissues (liver cancer and prostate cancer) significantly (p<0.001) less than in healthy tissues.