A study using a CT scan to detect false growth in brain tumours after treatment (CTPIP)

Cancer type:

Brain (and spinal cord) tumours

Status:

Results

Phase:

Pilot

This study used a special CT scan called a CT perfusion scan to identify false growth of brain tumours after treatment.

It was open to people who had treatment for a type of brain tumour called a glioblastoma multiforme.

More about this trial

After treatment doctors use MRI scans to check if your tumour has started to grow again. One of the ways they do this is to use an MRI to look at the blood flow and the blood vessels in the tumour.

But sometimes the MRI scan is not suitable and it may make the tumour look like it is growing again when it isn’t. This is called false growth. This may lead to people having further treatment that they don’t need.

Researchers thought a type of CT scan called a CT perfusion scan may be more useful. Using a CT perfusion scan doctors may be able to measure more accurately how the tumour works and so better calculate the blood flow.

This information will then help them to know if the tumour is growing again or not.

In this study the researchers wanted to find out if the CT perfusion scan was more accurate at assessing blood flow in brain tumours than the MRI scan.

Summary of results

The team found that the CT perfusion scan was just as good as the MRI scan to assess blood flow.

This study was open for people to join between October 2015 and December 2016.

About this study

10 people agreed to join this study.

Within 6 months of finishing treatment if a scan showed their tumour might be growing they had a CT perfusion scan and an MRI perfusion scan.

Results

Of the 10 people, 9 people had both the CT scan and MRI scan for:

6 people their tumour had come back
3 people it was a false growth

The team worked out the amount of blood flowing through the tumour (volume) and how the blood flowed through (flow). They compared the CT scan with the MRI scan to find which had the greater chance of:

showing the tumour was growing if you had glioma (this is called the sensitivity)
showing the tumour wasn’t growing if you didn’t have glioma (this is called the specificity)

Blood volume

Looking at the amount of blood flowing through the tumour they found that for sensitivity the CT perfusion scan would be better than the MRI scan.

And for specificity the CT perfusion scan would be better than the MRI scan.

Blood flow

Looking at how the blood flowed through the tumour they found that for sensitivity both scans are equal.

And for specificity the MRI scan would be better than the CT perfusion scan.

Conclusion

The team concluded these results suggest that for deciding that it is true or false growth of the glioma using:

blood volume the CT scan is equal to the MRI scan
blood flow the CT scan wasn’t as good as the MRI scan but there appears to be little difference between them

Where this information comes from

We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item

) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.