Prof. Dr. med. Dipl.-Phys. Heinz-Peter Schlemmer

Fig. 2: 64 year old patient with multiple myeloma. Diffusion-weighted whole-body MRI (a) before and (b) following 3 months after chemotherapy displays disseminated tumor involvement of the skeletal system responding to therapy.

The Department of Radiology is developing imaging methods for early detection of cancer and characterizing their functional and biologic features, e.g. blood supply, metabolism and molecular meachnisms. In close cooperation with the departments of the research program E Ultrasonography (US), Computed tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) are advanced and evaluated in patient studies. For this purpose up-to-date technologies are available including ultra-high field MRI, dual-energy CT and PET/CT. Methodic developments are conducted in cooperation with partners from medical-technical and pharmaceutic industries. Clinical studies are performed in close cooperation with clinics and institutes of the Heidelberg University hospital and the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT). The Department is furthermore partner of the German consortium for translational oncology and the German center for lung research. Scientific fields of application include e.g. early detection and characterization of prostate cancer, lung cancer and multiple myeloma. In addition, tools for quantifying individual therapy response are developed and applied in patients with e.g. rectal carcinoma or malignant melanoma. Further activities include the computer-aided image handling for implementation of the complex image information into patient care, e.g. for improving radiotherapy.

Goal is the progress of individualized diagnostics and therapy and image-guided therapy. A novel prostate biopsy system combining preinterventional MRI with periinterventional ultrasound for perineal navigated prostate biopsies has been developed in cooperation with the Department of Urology of the University Hospital Heidelberg enabling an effective way to precisely diagnose prostate cancer. A clinical study with MR-guided intra-urethral thermotherapy using high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) is aimed. Ultra-high field MRI is currently applied for advanced imaging of brain tumors. Novel contrast media (CEST agents) will be developed. Diffusion-weighted MRI for staging and therapy control is applied in patients with multiple myeloma. A cohort study supported by the Jose-Carreras-foundation for evaluating prognostic significance of perfusion data from dynamic MRI is currently in progress. In patients with bronchogenic carcinoma novel approaches are developed for metabolic MRI, 4D-CT imaging and PET with new radiotracers. The CT-based “lung cancer screening and intervention trial” (LUSI study) for early detection of bronchogenic carcinoma is operating since 5 years. For quantifying therapy response novel tools are developed, e.g. dual-energy CT for assessing changes in tissue composition. It is intended to install a MR/PET-system for improved tumor characterization and individualized therapy planning and monitoring by concurrently reducing radiation burden for the patient.