Pancreas tumor model in rabbit imaged by perfusion CT scans

The goal of this work was to develop and validate a pancreas tumor animal model to investigate the relationship between photodynamic therapy (PDT) effectiveness and photosensitizer drug delivery. More specifically, this work lays the foundation for investigating the utility of dynamic contrast enhanced blood perfusion imaging to be used to inform subsequent PDT. A VX2 carcinoma rabbit cell line was grown in the tail of the pancreas of three New Zealand White rabbits and approximately 3-4 weeks after implantation the rabbits were imaged on a CT scanner using a contrast enhanced perfusion protocol, providing parametric maps of blood flow, blood volume, mean transit time, and vascular permeability surface area product.