AI Article Synopsis
- Overexpression of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a key target for treating non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but the effectiveness of cetuximab, an EGFR-targeting drug, remains uncertain due to difficulties in identifying appropriate patients.
- This study explored the use of radiolabeled cetuximab as a non-invasive method to predict the drug's accumulation in NSCLC tumors with varying EGFR levels using PET imaging in mouse models.
- Results indicated that higher EGFR expression significantly correlated with increased cetuximab uptake, suggesting that immuno-PET imaging could be a useful clinical tool for anticipating which NSCLC patients would benefit from cetuximab treatment.
Article Abstract
Backgrounds: Overexpression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been established as a valid therapeutic target of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). However, the clinical benefit of cetuximab as an EGFR-targeting drug is still controversial, partially due to the lack of effective means to identify suitable patients. This study aimed to investigate the potential of radiolabeled cetuximab as a non-invasive tool to predict cetuximab accumulation in NSCLC tumor xenografts with varying EGFR expression levels.
Methods: The NSCLC tumors in model mice were subjected to in vivo biodistribution study and positron emission tomography (PET) imaging 48 h after injection of either In- or Cu-labeled cetuximab. The EGFR expression levels of NSCLC tumors were determined by ex vivo immunoblotting.
Results: We found that tumors with high EGFR expression had significantly higher [In]In-DOTA-cetuximab accumulation than tumors with moderate to low EGFR expression (P < 0.05). Strong correlations were found between [In]In-DOTA-cetuximab tumor uptake and EGFR expression level (r = 0.893), and between [Cu]Cu-DOTA-cetuximab tumor uptake with EGFR expression level (r = 0.915). PET imaging with [Cu]Cu-DOTA-cetuximab allowed clear visualization of tumors.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that this immuno-PET imaging can be clinically translated as a tool to predict cetuximab accumulation in NSCLC cancer patients prior to cetuximab therapy.
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Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6813975 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12885-019-6238-4 | DOI Listing |
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