Multimodality Characterization of a Bone-Metastasis Model

Introduction: Bone metastases are established when cancer cells reach the bone marrow through blood vessels in Haversian canals, extravasate, multiply, and eventually neovascularize. Metastatic bone lesions can be classified as osteolytic, osteoblastic and mixed. In osteolytic lesions, which are the most common, bone destruction outstrips the laying down of new bone. Osteoblastic lesions result from new bone growth stimulated by the cancer cells. Microscopically, most lesions contain both characteristics. The application of noninvasive multi-modality molecular imaging to understand and characterize bone metastatic lesions will provide new insights that can be exploited for defining and attacking new targets under image-guidance, and for monitoring response to treatments. Here we present data to demonstrate the feasibility of performing CT, MRI and MRSI of a bone-metastasis model of renal cell carcinoma.