Early perfusion MRI predicts survival outcome in patients with recurrent glioblastoma treated with bevacizumab and carboplatin

Abstract

Bevacizumab, an anti-angiogenic agent, is FDA-approved for use in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (rGBM). The radiologic evaluation of tumor response to bevacizumab is complex and there is no validated method of monitoring tumor vascularity during therapy. We evaluated perfusion-weighted MR imaging (PWI) in our cohort of patients enrolled in the CABARET trial, which examined the effectiveness of bevacizumab with or without carboplatin in patients with rGBM. Pre-treatment and early follow-up (4- and 8-week) PWI were used to calculate relative cerebral blood volume (rCBV) histogram statistics of the contrast-enhancing and FLAIR hyperintense tumor volumes. A novel rCBV measureme..