Angiogenesis is the formation of new blood vessels from the pre-existing vasculature, it is essential for tumor growth and development. Quantitative evaluation of vascular parameters that allow to identify angiogenesis in early stages of tumor development could have an impact on lesion detection, cancer treatment, and patient outcome. The aim of this study was to define the factors related to contrast medium administration and image acquisition that allow to quantify vascular parameters from contrast-enhanced micro-computed tomography (CE-microCT) images. Type of contrast-medium, dose and image acquisition time were determined for single-energy (SE) and dual-energy (DE) CE-microCT imaging protocols using a tumor angiogenesis murine model. Enhancement and relative blood volume (rBV) were quantified from SE and DE images in muscle, tumor core, tumor periphery and the whole tumor. The differences in enhancement between muscle and the tumor regions quantified in SE images were not statistically significant. A statistically significant difference was found for rBV between muscle and tumor periphery in SE images, but the differences with tumor core and the whole tumor were not significant. For the DE protocol, more animals need to be included in the study in order to evaluate the differences in enhancement and rBV. Validation studies are also required to evaluate the correlation between rBV and angiogenesis biomarkers. Despite these limitations, rBV quantified from CE-microCT images seems to be a promising vascular parameter that could help to describe the angiogenic status of a tumor during cancer progression.
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