An MRI-based imaging technique that distinguishes between two different subtypes of ovarian tumors in test tube experiments with cancer cells may eventually help doctors customize patients’ treatments, researchers say.

The technique, called hyperpolarised carbon-13 imaging, would predict how well patients’ tumors will respond to treatment and also let doctors see whether treatments are working within 48 hours, according to a report published in Oncogene.

Different forms of ovarian cancer respond differently to drugs. With current tests, patients typically wait for weeks or months to find out whether their cancer is responding to treatment. The rapid feedback provided by this new technique would help oncologists adjust patients’ treatments within days, the researchers said.

Ovarian cancer patients often have multiple tumors, and it is not possible to biopsy all of them, the researchers noted. MRI, which is non-invasive, would allow for analysis of all of the tumors.

When they compared the hyperpolarised imaging technique with results from positron emission tomography scans, they found that the PET scans did not detect the metabolic differences between different tumor subtypes and so could not identify the type of tumor.

“One of the questions cancer patients ask most often is whether their treatment is working. If oncologists can speed their patients onto the best treatment, then it’s clearly of benefit,” study leader Kevin Brindle in the University of Cambridge said in a statement.

His team is hoping to test the technique in ovarian cancer patients within the next few years.

Brindle has also been studying ways to use hyperpolarised carbon-13 imaging to investigate breast, prostate and brain tumors.