Improving the characterization of meningioma microstructure in proton therapy from conventional apparent diffusion coefficient measurements using Monte Carlo simulations of diffusion MRI

Proton therapy could benefit from non-invasively gaining tumour microstructure information, at both planning and monitoring stages. The anatomical location of brain tumours, such as meningiomas, often hinders the recovery of such information from histopathology, and conventional non-invasive imaging biomarkers, like the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) from diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI), are non-specific. The aim of this study was to retrieve discriminative microstructural markers from conventional ADC for meningiomas treated with proton therapy. These markers were employed for tumour grading and tumour response assessment.