A comparison of the proton relaxation in human epithelial tumors and associated uninvolved tissue

Longitudinal and transverse proton relaxation from several sets of paired surgical samples of human epithelial tumors and associated histologically uninvolved tissues were studied at 37°C and at 20 MHz. Broad distributions of exponential terms fit allT ₁ andT ₂ decays well. The tumor times showed over twice the scatter of the associated tissue times but no clear trends. Although the nontumor relaxation show little variability, the tumor curves can have either longer or shorter times and different shapes.