Magnetic Resonance (MR) Metabolic Imaging in Glioma

This review is focused on describing the use of magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy for metabolic imaging of brain tumors. We will first review the MR metabolic imaging findings generated from preclinical models, focusing primarily on in vivo studies, and will then describe the use of metabolic imaging in the clinical setting. We will address relatively well-established H-1 MRS approaches, as well as P-31 MRS, C-13 MRS and emerging hyperpolarized C-13 MRS methodologies, and will describe the use of metabolic imaging for understanding the basic biology of glioma as well as for improving the characterization and monitoring of brain tumors in the clinic.