Identification of Clinically Occult Glioma Cells and Characterization of Glioma Behavior Through Machine Learning Analysis of Advanced Imaging Technology

Gliomas are one of the most challenging tumors to treat, because areas of the apparently normal brain contain microscopic deposits of glioma cells; indeed, these occult cells are known to infiltrate several centimeters beyond the clinically apparent lesion visualized on standard computer tomography or magnetic resonance imaging (MR). Since it is not feasible to remove or radiate large volumes of the brain, it is important to target only the visible tumor and the infiltrated regions of the brain. However, due to the limited ability to detect occult glioma cells, clinicians currently add a uniform margin of 2 cm or more beyond the visible abnormality, and irradiate that volume. Evidence, however, suggests that glioma growth is not uniform - growth is favored in certain directions and impeded in others. This means it is important to determine, for each patient, which areas are at high risk of harboring occult cells. We propose to address this task by learning how gliomas grown, by applying Machine Learning algorithms to a database of images (obtained using various advanced imaging technologies: MRI, MRS, DTI, and MET-PET) from previous glioma patients. Advances will directly translate to improvements for patients.