dr. Jeanine Prompers of UMC Utrecht and her colleagues have a grant of 3.6 million from NWO received for the Perspectief program of MAESTRO. With the money they can develop a new imaging technology that predicts at an early stage whether a treatment for cancer or type 2 diabetes is successful.
Jeanine Prompers: “We would like to improve the quality of life of these people. By discovering early that a treatment is not working, you can also prevent its side effects and possibly start another treatment. In this way, care becomes more effective and the prognosis for patients better. Next to this we search with this project ways to reduce healthcare costs. We focus on different patient groups: women with breast cancer, patients with liver metastases and people with pre-diabetes.”
Treatments not always effective
Treatments against cancer, for example, are not always effective. A certain treatment works for some patients and not for others. It is usually only clear whether the treatment is successful if it has been used for a longer period of time. The same applies to lifestyle interventions to prevent diseases linked to obesity, such as type 2 diabetes. For example, not everyone who is overweight benefits from the same diet.
Mapping metabolism with images
However, no technique was yet available to assess the effect of treatments in cancer or type 2 diabetes at an early stage. With images of a sensitive 7-Tesla MRI, this can probably be done. With these images, the metabolism can largely be mapped. The technology that Jeanine and colleagues are developing maps metabolic processes in the body. These include how active certain cells are, how much energy they use and how quickly they divide.
Prompers: “You can measure that with certain metabolic markers, a type of marker. Changes in metabolism during a treatment or lifestyle intervention can predict the response very early or show whether the treatment is working. In this project we will investigate this for various applications.”
Collaboration for Metabolic Imaging
The grant enables Jeanine Prompers to collaborate with MRI experts, physicians and experts to develop and directly apply metabolic imaging. “We also work with companies that help develop and market our metabolic imaging technology, and of course with the patients themselves. The goal is for metabolic imaging to become a standard imaging modality in the clinic.”
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