Prospective testing of clinical Cerenkov luminescence imaging against standard-of-care nuclear imaging for tumour location
Mené sur 96 patients atteints d'un cancer ou susceptibles de l'être, cette étude évalue, par rapport aux examens d'imagerie standard (tomographie numérique par émission de positrons ou tomographie planaire par émission monophotonique), la faisabilité et la performance d'un système d'imagerie par luminescence de Cerenkov pour détecter des lésions cancéreuses
In oncology, the feasibility of Cerenkov luminescence imaging (CLI) has been assessed by imaging superficial lymph nodes in a few patients undergoing diagnostic 18F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (18F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT). However, the weak luminescence signal requires the removal of ambient light. Here we report the development of a clinical CLI fiberscope with a lightproof enclosure, and the clinical testing of the setup using five different radiotracers. In an observational prospective trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03484884) involving 96 patients with existing or suspected tumours, scheduled for routine clinical FDG PET or 131I therapy, the level of agreement of CLI with standard-of-care imaging (PET or planar single-photon emission CT) for tumour location was ‘acceptable’ or higher (≥3 in the 1–5 Likert scale) for 90% of the patients. CLI correlated with the concentration of radioactive activity, and captured therapeutically relevant information from patients undergoing targeted radiotherapy or receiving the alpha emitter 223Ra, which cannot be feasibly imaged clinically. CLI could supplement radiological scans, especially when scanner capacity is limited.
Nature Biomedical Engineering , résumé, 2022