Assessment of repeatability and treatment response in early phase clinical trials using DCE-MRI: comparison of parametric analysis using MR- and CT-derived arterial input functions.

Objectives Pharmacokinetic (PK) modelling of dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) data requires a reliable measure of the arterial input function (AIF) to robustly characterise tumour vascular properties. This study compared repeatability and treatment-response effects of DCE-MRI-derived PK parameters using a population-averaged AIF and three patient-specific AIFs derived from pre-bolus MRI, DCE-MRI and dynamic contrast computed tomography (DC-CT) data.