My current research is focused on capturing intratumor heterogeneity of liver metastases with radiology. Briefly I’m trying to answer the following questions:
- Can we capture intratumor heterogeneity with a CT scan in a reproducible way?
- Example (ideal world): we can quantify necrosis and fibrosis phenotypes in liver metastases regardless of the acquisition protocol.
- If yes, is this intratumor heterogeneity clinically relevant (i.e. specific enough to indicate something useful to add value to the patient?)
- Example (ideal world): in the context of unresectable metastatic colorectal cancer, if a patient has synchronous liver metastases with a necrotic core then this could indicate that the metastases are desmoplastis and giving an antiangiogenic to the patient wouldn’t add extra benefit.
Note that intratumor heterogeneity doesn’t have the same meaning at different scales. This review is a very good starting point if you’re interested in the topic. If you want to discuss any thoughts regarding this topic feel free to reach out.