Response assessment and side effect prediction of immunotherapy using PET with cancer-specific FBPA and FDG

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K08198
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 52040:Radiological sciences-related
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Tatsumi Mitsuaki 大阪大学, 医学部附属病院, 准教授 (60397700)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 渡部 直史 大阪大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 助教 (90648932)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: がん免疫療法 / FBPA / PET

Outline of Final Research Achievements

PET with F-18 fluoroboronophenylalanine (FBPA), a highly cancer-specific radiopharmaceutical, was compared with FDG PET to investigate its potential in determining efficacy in the early post-immunotherapy period when inflammation is a major factor. In a mouse model of malignant melanoma, quantitative evaluation of PET images showed that the FBPA PET treatment group had less tumor accumulation and smaller volume indices as compared to the non-treatment group. FDG-PET exhibited no significant differences in these indices, and some of the indices were rather greater in the treatment group. FBPA PET may have the potential to detect early post-treatment effects of cancer immunotherapy.

Free Research Field

核医学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

がん免疫療法において、がんに特異性の高いFBPA PETは、FDG PETよりも早期に正確に効果判定を行うことのできる可能性があることが明らかとなった。FBPA PETによるがん免疫療法治療効果判定により、効果不良群の早期検出が副作用低減や費用削減につながるか、今後検討すべき課題と考えられる。