New PET agent offers 'exceptional' imaging of kidney cancer
![Whole-body maximum-intensity projections over time after [68Ga]Ga-DPI-4452 administration.](/sites/default/files/styles/top_stories/public/2024-05/jnm_may_2024_hofman.jpg.webp?itok=GprRmzYP)
A new PET agent achieves “exceptional” imaging quality of lesions in patients with kidney cancer, according to new work published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.
The agent 68Ga-DPI-4452, or Debio 0328, was found to be better than standard CT imaging for patients with clear cell renal cell cancer (ccRCC), which accounts for the majority of renal cell cancers.
Up to one-third of patients with ccRCC develop metastases, resulting in poor prognosis. Although ablative surgery is effective, it can be difficult to identify the extent of disease spread. Better visualization of metastases has the potential to improve surgical planning.
Debio 0328 targets the carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) encoding gene, which is overexpressed in a vast majority of ccRCC cases, and could offer an opportunity for providers to concoct more focused treatments. That, in addition to assessing the safety and tolerability of Debio 0328, was the focus of this latest study, Professor Michael Hofman MBBS, a nuclear medicine specialist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne, Australia, explained.
The research included patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic ccRCC who had received at least two lines of treatment. Patients were given the imaging agent and then completed a series of PET scans at the 15-minute, one-, two- and four-hour marks after administration.
The agent provided excellent visualization of the patients’ tumors, with uptake lasting up to four hours after administration. Patients who received the agent did not show any signs of clinically significant toxicity, and it was easily and quickly eliminated from their blood and urine.
One of the more impressive attributes of Debio 0328 is its ability to expedite the entire imaging process, Hofman said.
“68Ga-DPI-4452 PET/CT revealed an exceptionally high tumor-to-background ratio, with background tissues nearly invisible with the exception of gastrointestinal uptake,” Hofman said. “One-hour after administration was deemed the optimal time point for lesion assessment, which is substantially shorter than the three to seven days needed in previous PET imaging studies using antibody approaches.”
The findings are encouraging, but the study was quite small, so more research is needed in larger groups of patients to better understand how the agent can be utilized to improve outcomes. Experts are also looking into its utility as a part of a theranostic pair for the treatment of ccRCC.
The study can be viewed here.
In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She joined Innovate Healthcare in 2021 and has since put her unique expertise to use in her editorial role with Health Imaging.