MR-BIO: A Study to Evaluate Changes in MR Imaging and Biological Parameters (MR-BIO)

The MR BIO study aims to understand the changes in the tumour and normal tissues during a course of radiotherapy. This is accomplished by studying the MR images taken during each treatment session on the MR Linear accelerator (MR Linac). The overarching hypothesis is that changes in MR imaging and biological parameters from blood, tissue, or urine biomarkers can be measured during radiotherapy and associated with clinical outcome.

The MR Linac is a new radiotherapy machine with an on board MR scanner. This enables us to take images with high resolution and target the tumours more precisely and also reduce the dose to normal tissues. All patients undergoing treatment in the MR Linac at the Christie hospital will be considered for enrolment regardless of tumour site being treated.

The study participants will receive the standard of care treatment for their disease condition. In addition, they will be requested to give weekly blood and urine samples during the course of radiotherapy and at first follow up. On completion of radiotherapy treatment, the participants will continue to be on standard of care follow up protocol with the treating oncologist.

A small cohort of ten healthy volunteers will also be recruited to the study to develop and select some of the MR sequences only; they will not provide blood or urine samples. The healthy volunteers will be scanned for no more than one hour per session for a maximum of two sessions in total. These optimised sequences can then be used in the patient cohort.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Cancer

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 250

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Rachel Reed, MSc; Phone Number: 01619187029; Email: rachel.reed18@nhs.net
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Kimberley Reeves, PhD; Email: kimberley.reeves@manchester.ac.uk

Study Locations

• United Kingdom
  • Manchester, United Kingdom, M20 4BX
    • Recruiting
    • The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
    • Contact: Rachel Reed, MSc; Phone Number: 01619187029; Email: rachel.reed18@nhs.net
    • Contact: Kimberley Reeves, PhD; Email: kimberley.reeves@manchester.ac.uk
    • Principal Investigator: Ananya Choudhury, Professor

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The Christie.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

Be willing and able to provide written consent. Over 18 years of age. Undergo and satisfy MRI Safety Screening Patient volunteers must be under the care of a clinical oncologist at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and be planned to receive radiotherapy to the target site to be imaged.

Patient volunteers must be able to give blood and/or urine sample as required through the treatment period.

Non-patient (healthy) volunteers must have no known or suspected significant medical condition.

Exclusion Criteria:

The following apply to both patients and healthy volunteers:

Any conditions that would be a contra-indication to MRI including:

• Failure to satisfy MRI Safety Screening Form
• Implanted pacemakers and/or pacing wires
• Cochlear implants
• Programmable hydrocephalus shunts
• Ferromagnetic implants
• Unable to tolerate MR scans
• Known HIV or active HepB or C
• Pregnancy Healthy volunteers must not be a member of the study team.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Non-patient healthy volunteer; Undertake MR Imaging to enable development of sequences.
Patient; Provide weekly blood and urine samples during period of radiotherapy as well as additional MR images.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Correlation of biomarkers	Analysis of MR images will be performed using in-house protocols based on established mathematical modelling techniques. Pearson correlation analysis will be used to assess relationships between MRI parameters and tissue markers. For oxygen enhanced imaging, two-sample unpaired t-tests will be used to identify changes in tissue oxygen in MR images. Descriptive statistics will be presented using median and 95% confidence intervals (CI) or standard deviation (SD). In addition, Bland-Altman analysis will be performed to calculate bias and 95% limits of agreement between the two measurement techniques.	Up to five years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Correlation with patient reported toxicity	Association of detected imaging changes with variations in patient-reported toxicity and radiotherapy response at first follow up after radiotherapy.	Up to five years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Manchester
• Collaborators: The Christie NHS Foundation Trust
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Ananya Choudhury, PhD, FRCR, MRCP, MA, MB BChir,, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 20, 2020
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 22, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 25, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): May 26, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 12, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 9, 2026
• Last Verified: May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms
• Other Study ID Numbers: NHS001677

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No