Differentiating lung cancer and infection based on measurements of extracellular pH with acidoCEST MRI

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 13002 - 8
• Main Authors: Lindeman, Leila R., Jones, Kyle M., High, Rachel A., Howison, Christine M., Shubitz, Lisa F., Pagel, Mark D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 10-09-2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 59; 59/57; 631/67/2321; 692/53/2421; 692/699/67/2321; Acidosis; Acidosis - physiopathology; Adenocarcinoma; Adenocarcinoma of Lung - diagnosis; Animal models; Animals; Coccidioidomycosis; Diagnosis; Diagnosis, Differential; Extracellular Space - chemistry; Female; Fever; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; Lung cancer; Lung Neoplasms - diagnosis; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Medical diagnosis; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Inbred C57BL; multidisciplinary; Nodules; pH effects; Reproductive Tract Infections - diagnosis; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Tumors
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-49514-1

Lung cancer diagnosis via imaging may be confounded by the presence of indolent infectious nodules in imaging studies. This issue is pervasive in the southwestern US where coccidioidomycosis (Valley Fever) is endemic. AcidoCEST MRI is a noninvasive imaging method that quantifies the extracellular pH (pHe) of tissues
in vivo
, allowing tumor acidosis to be used as a diagnostic biomarker. Using murine models of lung adenocarcinoma and coccidoidomycosis, we found that average lesion pHe differed significantly between tumors and granulomas. Our study shows that acidoCEST MRI is a promising tool for improving the specificity of lung cancer diagnosis.