MRI predicts if patients are able to fight cancer, respond to treatment

Across the Atlantic, newly published oncology research may help predict how well patients can prevent the spread of cancer and respond to immunotherapy treatment, according to the University of Liverpool in the U.K.   

Led Philip Rudland, PhD, a professor of biochemistry at the Institute of Integrative Biology at the University of Liverpool, researchers from the University of Liverpool and the Walton Centre, a neurology hospital based in Liverpool, have found that a standard MRI could indicate how long patients with cancer may survive and whether or not immunotherapy treatment will be successful before receiving it. Material for the Walton Centre Tissue Bank was used to provide access to brain tumor tissue and blood samples to help develop and test new treatment options.

According to an associated press release, "Immunotherapy is revolutionizing the way doctors treat cancer [because] it does not come with many of the debilitating side effects produced by chemotherapy; however, it does not work for everyone or for every type of cancer and, although successful in some cases, there is currently no simple test to determine who is likely to benefit."