Tumor infiltration of bone marrow in patients with hematological malignancies: dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Conventional magnetic resonance (MR) scanning techniques can identify bone marrow (BM) containing mostly fat cells. But they are not able to differentiate BM tumor infiltration, BM fibrosis and normal red BM. This is particularly problematic in assessment of recurrent or refractory hematological malignancy. This pilot study used dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging (DCE-MRI) to evaluate the bone marrow status and to determine whether several calculated parameters derived from the DCE-MRI correlate with histological characteristics of marrow, especially with the tumor fraction (TF). METHODS: DCE-MRI scans were performed in 25 patients with proven or known hematological malignancy ..