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The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA.
AJR Am J Roentgenol 2010;194:166–71.
Editor’s note: In metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), the primary tumor and metastases are known to be highly vascular as a result of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-mediated angiogenesis. Priorto the advent of targeted anti-VEGF therapies, interferon (IFN) was the standard of care in RCC for approximately 20 years. This cytokine therapy has previously been shown to have antiangiogenic properties in preclinical studies (
Cancer Res 1998;58:808–14,
J Natl Cancer Inst 2003;95:437–48). Dynamic contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) is a novel technique that uses imaging as an early marker of response to antiangiogenic therapies by demonstrating altered tumor vasculature and perfusion. The current authors used this technique to explore alterations in tumor perfusion parameters in patients receiving IFN therapy for mRCC. The hypothesis was that alterations in tumor perfusion might correlate with progression-free survival (PFS).