Benjamin M. Ellingson, Ph.D.: “Characterizing the microenvironment of primary brain tumors using a..

Full Title: “Characterizing the microenvironment of primary brain tumors using advanced MRI”

The brain tumor microenvironment is a complex and dynamic system that plays a crucial role in tumor growth, invasion, and therapeutic response. It comprises various components, including tumor cells, stromal cells, immune cells, blood vessels, the extracellular matrix, and distinct biochemical characteristics. The intricate interactions among these elements contribute to the unique challenges associated with understanding and treating brain tumors.

This talk will describe recent advances in our ability to image and quantify critical aspects of the brain tumor milieu within the clinical environment, including new approaches to characterize tumor vascularity, cellularity, acidity, hypoxia, and salinity. We will show how we can use combinations of these new image contrasts to further gain insight into subregions or habitats within heterogeneous primary brain tumors, and how this information can be used to identify biological effects when testing new therapeutics.