MRI Mapping in Planning Radiation Therapy to the Base of Skull and Brain in Patients With Nonmetastatic Head and Neck Cancer

OBJECTIVES:

- To determine the feasibility of applying established MRI techniques to map functional
anatomic regions at potential risk in irradiated normal brain tissue of patients
undergoing radiotherapy to the base of the skull and brain for head and neck neoplasms.

- To determine changes in cerebral blood flow and blood volume with perfusion MRI
techniques in irradiated regions of the brain as a function of the radiation dose.

OUTLINE: Patients undergo MRI perfusion imaging and functional (fMRI) (standard structural
imaging sequences, diffusion tensor imaging, arterial spin labeled perfusion imaging at
rest, blood oxygen level dependent, and dynamic susceptibility contrast perfusion weighted
MRI) at baseline and 3 and 6 months after completion of radiotherapy. Patients may perform
tasks for fMRI studies, including finger tapping, photic stimulation with a flashing light,
solving math problems, comparing shapes, giving a speech, or listening to and reciting lists
of words during fMRI image acquisition. Patients also undergo daily fractionated
intensity-modulated radiotherapy.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

- Histologically confirmed head and neck cancer that requires radiotherapy to the base
of the skull

- No evidence of metastatic disease

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

- ECOG performance status 0-1

- Life expectancy ≥ 1 year

- Not pregnant

- Negative pregnancy test

- Able to undergo standard CT simulation and radiotherapy treatment planning and
delivery, including the capacity to comply with standard immobilization devices to
the head and neck for daily irradiation

- Able to undergo standard MRI and deemed capable of complying with the immobilization
needs and tasks required for functional MRIs

- No claustrophobia

- No patients with pacemakers, metal fragments in the eye, or certain metallic implants

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

- Not specified