Qing Wang, PhD

Washington University in St. Louis (WU)

Primary brain tumors have heterogeneous pathology with tumor grade, tumor vessel density and invasiveness playing roles in patient management. Currently, the clinical monitoring of primary brain tumors is performed by contrast-enhanced MRI at standard intervals, but there are limitations in the conventional MRI assessment particularly in non-enhancing tumors. My research focuses on implementing a novel data-driven Neuro-Immune Imaging (NII) method customized for tumor characterization by providing the quantitative distributions of different grades of tumor cells and capillary blood perfusion within the tumor in a single clinical imaging scan. NII also identifies changes pertaining to inflammation and edema associated with radiation necrosis but not related to tumor recurrence. The success of clinical translation of NII will improve the clinical diagnosis and patient care in Primary brain tumors.