Research published in the recent issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) shows that a molecular imaging technique may prove useful in early evaluation of therapy response for cisplatin-resistant ovary cancer.

"One of the most promising aspects of molecular imaging is its potential capacity to measure treatment effects long before changes in the tumor size and shape are detected," said Marijke De Saint-Hubert, medical scientist in the Department of Nuclear Medicine at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium, and one of the authors on an invited perspective article in JNM that comments on the study. It is important to identify response to treatment as early as possible so that ineffective therapies can be discontinued. Patients who are not responding to a given treatment appears to be suffering from unnecessary side effects and may also be offered potentially more effective therapys.

The chemotherapy drug cisplatin is often effective against ovary cancer when first given; however, tumors can become resistant to the drug and start growing again, so the need for second-line therapies is pressing. One potential way to overcome cisplatin resistance is to target the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. The aim of the study was to evaluate the ability of 18F-FLT, a PET probe for cell proliferation, to predict early response to everolimus (an mTOR inhibitor) in a mouse model of subcutaneously transplanted human cisplatin-resistant ovary cancer.

The study showed that 18F-FLT PET was able to predict early response to mTOR inhibition in a cisplatin-resistant ovary cancer in mice. The scientists suggest that this technique should be considered for therapeutic evaluation in humans. They also point out the technique's potential to non-invasively and longitudinally monitor the efficacy of combination treatment.

"PET imaging could be used to evaluate the therapy's efficacy very early after therapy initiation-at a time when conventional criteria based on tumor size measurements are useless," said Nicolas Aide, M.D., Centre for Molecular Imaging at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Australia, one of the authors of the study.

Authors of the scientific article, "18F-FLT PET as a Surrogate Marker of Drug Efficacy During mTOR Inhibition by Everolimus in a Preclinical Cisplatin-Resistant Ovarian Tumor Model," include: Nicolas Aide, Bioticla Team, EA1772, IFR 146 ICORE, GRECAN, François Baclesse Cancer Centre and Caen University, Caen, France, PET Unit, Caen University Hospital and François Baclesse Cancer Centre, Caen, France; Nicolas Aide, Kathryn Kinross, Peter Roselt, Oliver Neels,.

Donna Dorow, Grant McArthur, Rodney J. Hicks, Centre for Molecular Imaging and Translational Research Laboratory, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Australia; Carleen Cullinane, Kelly Waldeck, Donna Dorow, Grant McArthur, Rodney J. Hicks, and Kathryn Kinross, Sir Donald and Lady Trescowthick Laboratories, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, East Melbourne, Australia; and Grant McArthur and Rodney J. Hicks, Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia.


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