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First-Order Statistical Speckle Models Improve Robustness And Reproducibility Of Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound Perfusion Estimates, Matthew R. Lowerison

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) permits the quantification and monitoring of adaptive tumor responses in the face of anti-angiogenic treatment, with the goal of informing targeted therapy. However, conventional CEUS image analysis relies on mean signal intensity as an estimate of tracer concentration in indicator-dilution modeling. This discounts additional information that may be available from the first-order speckle statistics in a CEUS image. Heterogeneous vascular networks, typical of tumor-induced angiogenesis, lead to heterogeneous contrast enhancement of the imaged tumor cross-section.

To address this, a linear (B-mode) processing approach was developed to quantify the change in the first-order speckle statistics of B-mode cine …

Mt1-Mmp Mediates The Migratory And Tumourigenic Potential Of Breast Cancer Cells Via Non-Proteolytic Mechanisms, Mario Cepeda

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Membrane Type-1 Matrix Metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) is a multifunctional protease that affects cell function via proteolytic and non-proteolytic mechanisms such as promoting degradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) or augmentation of cell migration and viability, respectively. MT1-MMP has been implicated in metastatic progression ostensibly due to its ability to degrade ECM components and to allow migration of cells through the basement membrane. Despite in vitro studies demonstrating this principle, this knowledge has not translated into the use of MMP inhibitors (MMPi) that inhibit substrate catalysis as effective cancer therapeutics, or been corroborated by evidence of in vivo ECM degradation mediated by …