CT Perfusion in the Prognostication of Cerebral High Grade Glioma

High grade cerebral glioma is the most common primary brain tumor in adults and accounts for about 2.5% of all cancer deaths. Brain tumor affects approximately 2300 individuals per year in Canada. Noninvasive accurate and timely diagnosis is imperative. High grade glioma is an aggressive neoplasm with median survival of 12 months, irrespective of any treatment. The prognosis of these patients can only be decided based on pathology after biopsy or surgery. Conventional imaging techniques, such as routine magnetic resonance imaging(MRI), do not accurately predict the grade of malignancy of cerebral gliomas. Computed tomography(CT) perfusion allows us to study the blood supply to the tumor at the level of capillaries. This information permits determination of aggressiveness of cerebral gliomas at the time of diagnosis. In a preliminary study of 20 patients with high grade cerebral gliomas, we have shown that CT perfusion can predict survival at the time of diagnosis irrespective of the pathological grade and the treatment received. In the present study, we would like to extend our preliminary findings in larger group of patients to ensure that this technique is indeed robust. If our hypothesis was supported by our study, we will be able to subselect patients based on initial imaging for more aggressive treatment. In patients with shorter survival, the perfusion parameters may help in identifying new therapeutic targets (e.g., anti-angiogenic agents) that may help in the treatment of these patients.