Small animal MRI at 0.35 Tesla: growth and morphology of intra-organ murine tumors.

A whole-body small animal radiofrequency coil was designed and built for use with a 0.35 Tesla clinical magnetic resonance imager. The primary motivation for this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of this system for small animal magnetic resonance imaging of tumor-bearing mice. This noninvasive technique is shown to provide high resolution whole-body images of mice, to be capable of detecting intra-organ tumors, and to be useful for evaluating tumor size and growth. Its potential for monitoring response to experimental therapeutic regimens is also noted. Two tumor models were examined--colon adenocarcinoma MCA-38 and human ASPC-1 pancreatic adenocarcinoma.