Tumour virtual histology with Magnetic Resonance Elastography

The reciprocal interaction between cancer cells and the surrounding creates a tumorigenic feedback loop capable of shifting the anti-neoplastic feature of the microenvironment towards a tumour growth-promoting one. Unfortunately infiltrating tumours, like GBMs, do not have discrete boundaries and intra-axial metastases are not visible on conventional MR images. However they are expected to change the tissue biomechanics. Here we explored tumour microenvironment biomechanics non-invasively using MRE in a cohort of 23 patients with brain tumours - 13 meningiomas, 10 glioblastomas. We show how MRE provides a comprehensive characterization of the tumour microenvironment, explaining histological features and tumour invasive features.