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Aims The use of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) as a prognostic marker of treatment response would enable early individualisation of treatment. We aimed to quantify the changes in mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ΔADC_mean) between a DW-MRI at diagnosis and on fraction 8–10 of chemoradiotherapy (CRT) as a biomarker for cellularity, and correlate these with anal squamous cell carcinoma recurrence. Materials and methods This prospective study recruited patients with localised anal cancer between October 2014 and November 2017. DW-MRI was carried out at diagnosis and after fraction 8–10 of radical CRT. A region of interest was delineated for all primary tumours and any lymph nodes >2 cm on high-resolution T 2-weighted images and propagated to the ADC map. Routine clinical follow-up was collected from Nation Health Service electronic systems. Results Twenty-three of 29 recruited patients underwent paired DW-MRI scans. Twenty-six regions of interest were delineated among the 23 evaluable patients. The median (range) tumour volume was 13.6 cm^3 (2.8–84.9 cm^3). Ten of 23 patients had lesions with ΔADC_mean ≤ 20%. With a median follow-up of 41.2 months, four patients either failed to have a complete response to CRT or subsequently relapsed. Three of four patients with disease relapse had lesions demonstrating ΔADC_mean Conclusions We demonstrated a potential correlation between patients with ΔADC_mean

Background Anal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (ASCC) is radically treated by chemoradiotherapy (CRT). The use of DW-MRI as a predictive marker of outcome would enable early individualisation of treatment. We aimed to quantify the changes in mean apparent-diffusion-coefficient (ADCMean) between a DW-MRI at diagnosis and on fraction 8-10 of CRT as a biomarker for cellularity, and correlate these with outcome. Methods This prospective study recruited patients with ASCC between October 2014 and November 2017. DW-MRI was performed at diagnosis and after fraction 8-10 of radical CRT. A region of interest (ROI) was delineated for all primary tumours and any lymph nodes >2 cm on high-resolution T2 –weighted images and propagated to the ADC map. A pre-defined cut-off for percentage change in ADCMean (ΔADC) was set at Results Twenty-three of 29 recruited patients underwent paired DW-MRI scans. The median (range) tumour volume was 13.6 cm3 (2.8 cm3 to 84.9 cm3). The median ΔADCMean between scans was 20.7% (95% CI: 12.7%, 34.1%). Nine of 23 (43%) patients had a change of ADCMean Conclusions In a subset of patients, Clinical trial identification NCT02145416. Legal entity responsible for the study University of Oxford. Funding CRUK EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre in Oxford, the CRUK Oxford Centre and the NIHR.M Hawkins is supported by Medical Research Council grant MC_UU_00001/2. Disclosure R. Muirhead: Honoraria (self), Fee for lecture: Boehringer Ingelheim. V. Goh: Research grant / Funding (self): Siemens. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

A hypothesis is presented to explain the mechanism by which externally applied stresses can affect the magnetic properties of ferromagnetic materials. Experiments have revealed coincident points in the second and fourth quadrants on stressed hysteresis loops of mild steel. The results are presented along with an explanation of this effect. An atomic level theory of the origins of the magnetomechanical effect is introduced whereby spin-spin and spin-orbit coupling interact with magnetic moments to alter the magnetocrystalline anisotropy and exchange energies. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.