Early Assessment of Tumor Response to Radiation Therapy Using High-resolution Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound Imaging Techniques and Applications for Prostate Cance

Traditional anatomical imaging for cancer diagnosis and assessing response to therapy is limited to just the superficial appearance of a tumor. A functional imaging approach, which takes a closer at look various microenvironments within the tumor, is likely to offer a more holistic view of the tumor behavior and response to treatment. Acoustic Angiography is a novel super-harmonic contrast ultrasound imaging technique that utilizes a dual-frequency transducer to quickly generate high-resolution 3D microvascular images with exceptionally high contrast-to-tissue ratio. Herein, we demonstrate the ability of Acoustic Angiography to quantify tumor microvascular features and investigate their changes after therapeutic doses of radiation therapy in a tumor bearing rodent model. We then demonstrate using functional longitudinal data analysis that quantified microvascular features can be used to predict radiation therapy response with limited time point measurements.;Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, resulting in near 30,000 deaths a year in the United States alone. Current diagnostic and staging techniques for prostate cancer have been shown to have low sensitivity and specificity, limiting early detection and intervention. There is potential for improving ultrasound imaging techniques for aiding in prostate cancer detection and biopsy guidance with Acoustic Angiography imaging. The clinical translation of Acoustic Angiography hinges on certain design improvements, primarily increased depth of penetration. The last part of this dissertation discusses the development of a dual-frequency linear array transducer for Acoustic Angiography.;This dissertation consists of two primary hypotheses: 1) Acoustic Angiography can be used to quantify changes in tumor microvascular features and predict radiation treatment response earlier than using tumor volume alone. 2) Acoustic Angiography using a dual-frequency linear array transducer is suitable for prostate cancer imaging.