A new PET radiotracer enables same-day imaging of the important gastrointestinal cancer biomarker known as Claudin18.2 (CLDN18.2).
Uptake of the radiotracer, 68 Ga-NC-BCH, was found to correlate significantly with CLDN18.2 expression, a promising finding that could allow oncologists to optimize treatment for patients and monitor their response. This research was published in the June issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine .
Gastrointestinal cancers are one of the most common types of cancer across the globe, accounting for more than a quarter of the total cancer incidence and more than one-third of cancer-related deaths each year. Early symptoms can be deceptive, and most gastrointestinal cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage often leading to a poor prognosis and increased mortality. The protein CLDN18.
2 is highly expressed in gastrointestinal cancers and several forms of CDLN18.2-targeted therapies are currently undergoing clinical trials. There is no standard test for CLDN18.
2, however, and most detection methods involve immunohistochemistry, an invasive process that covers only a small amount of tissue and does not reflect the heterogeneity of CLDN18.2 expression in tumors. The detection of CLDN18.
2 expression levels is essential for identifying patients who can benefit from targeted therapies. In this study, we developed a CLDN18.2-targeting radiotracer and conducted whole-body PET imaging to determine its ability to detect the biomarker.
" Hua Zhu, PhD, Professor a.
