DWSARC: Diffusion Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging In Pediatric Sarcomas

Description

This study will enroll participants with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), non-RMS soft-tissue sarcoma, osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma. The doctors in this study would like to see if they can reduce the patient’s exposure to the harmful effects of ionizing radiation by replacing imaging studies that use radiation with whole body diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI), which does not use any radiation. They will also see if DWI MRI can tell how well pediatric sarcomas are responding to treatment. There have been some studies in adults with cancer that have shown that DWI-MRI provides useful information about tumors responding to therapy. However there have only been very small studies of DWI-MRI in children with tumors in the body. Therefore, the role of DW-MRI in pediatric sarcoma patients is not yet known and is still experimental.

Primary Objectives

• To estimate the ability of the whole body diffusion weighted MRI (WB DWI) to correctly identify pediatric sarcoma patients with and without bone/bone marrow and soft-tissue metastases at the time of diagnosis. 
• To determine the correlation between changes in primary pediatric sarcoma 18-F fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) maximum standardized uptake values (SUVmax) and average DWI apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values from baseline (pre-treatment) to just prior to local control. 

Eligibility Criteria

• Participant is under the care of a St. Jude physician with a known or suspected, newly diagnosed bone or soft tissue sarcoma who will be treated on or as per disease specific protocols and has not begun therapy OR participant has started therapy and the needed research imaging can be performed within 2-5 days of starting treatment.
• Participant has undergone or is scheduled for PET-CT, Bone Scan, or PET-CT and Bone Scan within two (2) weeks of the whole body and primary tumor DWI-MRI. 
• Participant meets institutional MRI safety screening requirements. 
• Participant has not undergone primary tumor resection prior to arrival to St. Jude. 

Note: If participant requires sedation, he/she must not have an acute cardiopulmonary process including, but not limited to croup, reactive airways disease, pneumonia, clinical or radiological evidence or pericardial effusion or other cardiopulmonary disease.

For the current eligibility status of this clinical study, referring physicians must contact St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at 1-866-2ST-JUDE (1-866-278-5833).

Principal Investigator

Beth McCarville, MD