Summary

The overall objective of the Quantitative Imaging Biomarker Alliance (QIBA) is to enhance the use of quantitative imaging methods in clinical practice. In a first set of activities together with pharmaceutical companies is to enable those companies to run multi-center clinical trials across imaging vendors, by reducing variance inherent among differing hardware and software platforms. A first application area is cancer trials.
Volumetric CT, FDG-PET and DCE-MRI have been identified as the most promising imaging techniques for this specific application.

Although those imaging techniques have different clinical development status - volumetric CT is already in clinical practice versus DCE-MRI as novel imaging technique in rather exploratory status - its use in multi-centre clinical trials cross imaging vendor has not been investigated. Clinical trials require comparable quantitative measures out of images. Therefore three working groups have been set up under QIBA to work with all relevant stakeholders on finding solutions.

In a QIBA workshop in May 2008 comparable imaging quality has been identified as first step on the way to make quantitative imaging results in clinical trials comparable.

The QIBA DCE-MRI team has agreed that imaging across GE, Philips and Siemens MR scanners, based on the same phantom, a generic imaging protocol, and well defined image and data analysis, will provide an understanding how different the quantitative results really are. This will form the basis for a clinical test - re-test study as validation of the phantom study findings.

The imaging procedure is based on a well defined phantom (a modified ADNI design) and will be performed using two different 1.5T MR scanners per imaging company (one newer scanner, one in widespread use). Imaging will be performed at select US clinical sites. Image and resulting data analysis will be performed centrally to provide a consistent analysis quality for further decision making. The phantom study is planned for three months.