Investigation of the differential biology between benign and malignant renal masses using advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques (IBM-Renal): a multi-arm, non-randomised feasibility study

Abstract

Introduction Localised renal masses are an increasing burden on healthcare due to the rising number of cases. However, conventional imaging cannot reliably distinguish between benign and malignant renal masses, and renal mass biopsies are unable to characterise the entirety of the tumour due to sampling error, which may lead to delayed treatment or overtreatment. There is an unmet clinical need to develop novel imaging techniques to characterise renal masses more accurately. Renal tumours demonstrate characteristic metabolic reprogramming, and novel MRI methods have the potential to detect these metabolic perturbations which may therefore aid accurate characterisation. Here we present our study protocol for the Investigation of the differential biology of Benign and Malignant renal masses using advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques (IBM-Renal).