Immuno-positron emission tomography (PET) imaging can provide early insight into a tumour's response to targeted therapy, allowing physicians to select the most effective treatment for patients who have cancer.

The new research was published in the The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

The research showed that immuno-PET successfully visualises changes in different cancer receptors (receptor tyrosine kinases, or RTKs) within tumours during targeted therapies.

This gives physicians a tool that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of a treatment soon after its administration.

"When healthy cells turn into cancer cells, there is a disruption in the RTK signalling. This makes RTKs a valuable therapeutic and imaging target," said Patricia Pereira, Ph.D., a research associate at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, New York. "Techniques that allow for real-time monitoring of RTK dynamics, such as immuno-PET, could be very beneficial in informing treatment choice and predicting response."

Immuno-PET uses a "tracer" to follow an antibody directed to a specific tumour.

This allows physicians to obtain images of events happening at the tumour site and provides information into whether the tumour responds to the treatment.

The physician can then visualise how the tumour is responding.

In this study, researchers used immuno-PET and three different antibodies to visualise three RTKs (MET, EGFR, and HER2) in a kidney tumour. Their results confirmed that immuno-PET visualises RTKs in ways that determine the level of protein within a tumour.

After administering a treatment, immuno-PET can detect changes in RTK levels that indicate whether a tumour is responsive to that treatment.

"Precision medicine involves the identification of certain gene mutations and expressions, as well as other features, that contribute individual tumour signatures," noted Pereira. "Our study shows that immuno-PET is a powerful technique to document RTK changes and predict tumours' response to targeted therapies."

Source: Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Engineering