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From Fiber Tracts to Tumor Spread: Biophysical Modeling of Butterfly Glioma Growth Using Diffusion Tensor Imaging

MCML Authors

Link to Profile Benedikt Wiestler PI Matchmaking

Benedikt Wiestler

Prof. Dr.

Principal Investigator

AI for Image-Guided Diagnosis and Therapy

Abstract

Butterfly tumors are a distinct class of gliomas that span the corpus callosum, producing a characteristic butterfly-shaped appearance on MRI. The distinctive growth pattern of these tumors highlights how white matter fibers and structural connectivity influence brain tumor cell migration. To investigate this relation, we applied biophysical tumor growth models to a large patient cohort, systematically comparing models that incorporate fiber tract information with those that do not. Our results demonstrate that including fiber orientation data significantly improves model accuracy, particularly for a subset of butterfly tumors. These findings highlight the critical role of white matter architecture in tumor spread and suggest that integrating fiber tract information can enhance the precision of radiotherapy target volume delineation.

inproceedings

CDMRI @MICCAI 2025

Workshop on Computational Diffusion MRI at 28th International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention. Daejeon, Republic of Korea, Sep 23-27, 2025. To be published. Preprint available.

Authors

J. Weidner • I. Ezhov • M. Balcerak • A. Datchev • L. Zimmer • D. Rückert • B. Menze • B. Wiestler

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Research Area

 C1 | Medicine

BibTeXKey: WEB+25

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