Making MRI a Potent Weapon in the War on Cancer

Time is critical when it comes to diagnosing and treating cancer.

Aggressive cancer tumor cells often produce enzymes that cut into healthy tissues surrounding the tumor, providing routes for tumor cells to escape and create new, difficult-to-treat metastatic tumors. These enzymes could be ideal targets for diagnosing and treating aggressive tumors early on, but they are seldom investigated because accurately measuring their performance has been difficult – until now.

Associate professor Marty Pagel and his multidisciplinary research team are developing MRI techniques for early detection of cancer and for monitoring effectiveness of anticancer drugs.

Read more in Arizona Engineer.