A new type of scan to monitor bone metastases

Grant information

Researcher – Professor Dow-Mu Koh
Institution – Royal Marsden Hospital
Grant award - £211,580
Duration - 2015-2018
Reference – PG14-016-TR2

Why did we fund this project?

• In some men with advanced prostate cancer, the cancer has spread to the bones to form new cancers called ‘bone metastases’.
• Treatments can help control the growth and spread of bone metastases. However, there is currently no reliable test to determine if these treatments are working for each man.
• Such a test would help doctors identify men with bone metastases who are not benefitting from their current treatment and should be switched to a new treatment.
• Professor Dow-Mu Koh and team thought that a special type of MRI scan, called a whole-body MRI (WB-MRI), could be used to monitor whether bone metastases are responding to treatments.
• In this project, the team investigated whether WB-MRI scans could be used to determine whether a treatment called olaparib was working for men with bone metastases.

What did the team do?

• The team recruited men with bone metastases who were treated with olaparib.
• WB-MRI scans were taken before, and up to 12 weeks after the men had started treatment with olaparib.
• The team then studied the men’s scans to look for changes in the size and characteristics of the bone metastases that would suggest the treatment had worked.

What did the team achieve?

• The team found WB-MRI scans could determine the number and size of men’s bone metastases, and importantly, could be used to monitor how they changed with treatment.
• Excitingly, the team showed men’s bone metastases shrunk by an average of 41% after being treated with olaparib.

What does this mean for men?

• The team have shown WB-MRI scans can be used to identify the number and size of bone metastases, and to determine how well treatments are working for each man.
• The team are now developing technology that would allow these scans to be used widely across the country to monitor men with bone metastases.
• In a new, Prostate Cancer UK-funded project, they are continuing to develop WB-MRI scans, to work out how best to use the information provided by the scans to monitor men's response to treatment.