(Press-News.org) Reston, Va. (February 1, 2011) — Positron emission tomography (PET) can image metabolic changes following treatment with the protein kinase inhibitor vandetanib, helping to define the therapy response or the effectiveness of the therapeutic agent, according to research published in the February issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. Currently being tested in clinical trials, vandetanib inhibits the function of the RET (rearranged-during-transfection protein) proto-oncogene and other protein kinases involved in the development and progression of cancer.
"For the most part, clinical trials have been measuring the effectiveness of vandetanib by changes in tumor size. Based on the activating effects of mutated RET and other protein kinases on numerous intracellular metabolic pathways, we hypothesized that PET imaging could play a role in the early evaluation of response to vandetanib," said Martin A. Walter, MD, lead author of the study "Metabolic Imaging Allows Early Prediction of Response to Vandetanib."
The study examined the usefulness of metabolic imaging to determine response to vandetanib in three ways. First, medullary thyroid cancer cells were used to create an in vitro model. After cultivation, the cells were treated with vandetanib, and changes in the metabolic profile of the cells were successfully monitored by transcriptional profiling and by radiotracer uptake studies.
Using the same untreated cells, the researchers then created an in vivo model by injecting mice with the cancerous cells and treating them with vandetanib. Small animal PET/computed tomography (CT) imaging was performed and was found to reproduce the in vitro findings of metabolic activity after three days.
Finally, a 43-year old patient with biopsy-proven metastasized medullary thyroid cancer was treated with vandetanib. PET scans taken at 12 and 24 weeks after treatment were able to detect metabolic response to vandetanib, consistent with the in vitro and in vivo samples.
"With the increasing number of available treatment options, careful patient selection is necessary to ensure targeted therapy is administered to those most likely to gain clinical benefit," said Walter. "The identification of markers of treatment efficacy is a key factor for the success of these novel treatment approaches."
"Furthermore," he continued, "relating in-vivo PET imaging metabolic data with transcriptional profiling data using cluster analysis is an innovative concept that allows much potential in the field of molecular imaging."
###
Authors of the scientific article, "Metabolic Imaging Allows Early Prediction of Response to Vandetanib" include: Martin A. Walter, Institute of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland, and Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, Calif.; Matthias R. Benz, Isabel J. Hildebrandt, Rachel E. Lang, Michael E. Phelps and Johannes, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, Calif.; Verena Hartung and Andreas Bockisch, Institute of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, Essen, Germany; Robert D. Damoiseaux, Molecular Shared Screening Resources, UCLA, Los Angeles, Calif.; and Wolfgang A. Weber, Department of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital, Freiburg, Germany, and Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles, Calif.
Please visit the SNM Newsroom to view the PDF of the study. To schedule an interview with the researchers, please contact Susan Martonik at (703) 652-6773 or smartonik@snm.org. Current and past issues of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine can be found online at http://jnm.snmjournals.org.
About SNM—Advancing Molecular Imaging and Therapy
SNM is an international scientific and medical organization dedicated to raising public awareness about what molecular imaging is and how it can help provide patients with the best health care possible. SNM members specialize in molecular imaging, a vital element of today's medical practice that adds an additional dimension to diagnosis, changing the way common and devastating diseases are understood and treated.
SNM's more than 17,000 members set the standard for molecular imaging and nuclear medicine practice by creating guidelines, sharing information through journals and meetings and leading advocacy on key issues that affect molecular imaging and therapy research and practice. For more information, visit http://www.snm.org.
END
(Phoenix, Arizona February 1, 2011) -- Research by a Barrow Neurological Institute scientist on the thermoregulatory effects of a receptor more commonly studied for its role in pain is the cover story in the Feb. 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. The research was conducted by an international team led by Andrej Romanovsky, MD, PhD, Director of the Systemic Inflammation Laboratory (FeverLab), at Barrow, which is a part of St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center.
The featured research discovers a new role of TRPV1 (transient receptor potential vanilloid-1) receptors ...
WASHINGTON — Talking with your hands can trigger mental images that help solve complex problems relating to spatial visualization, an important skill for both students and professionals, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.
Spatial visualization is the ability to mentally rotate or move an object to a different position or view. An air traffic controller uses spatial visualization to mentally track planes in the air based only on a two-dimensional radar screen. An interior decorator needs spatial visualization to picture how ...
In order understand the evolution of complex societies, researchers are sequencing the genomes of social insects. The most recent data, published this week in the Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, come from several species of ants, including the red harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus.
A team, lead by Arizona State University organismal and systems biology professor Juergen Gadau, sequenced one of the genomes and set out to decipher which genes might be responsible for defining which ants work and which ants reproduce in a red harvester ...
Invasive plant species are a serious environmental, economic and social problem worldwide. Their abundance can lead to lost native biodiversity and ecosystem functions, such as nutrient cycling.
Despite substantial research, however, little is known about why some species dominate new habitats over native plants that technically should have the advantage.
A common but rarely tested assumption, say biologists, is that these plants behave in a special way, making them more abundant when introduced into communities versus native plants that are already there.
If true, ...
It has already been called one of the largest winter storms since the 1950s and it is affecting 30 U.S. states today with snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain. NASA satellites have gathering data on the storm that stretches from Texas and the Rockies to the New England states.
NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites have been providing visible, infrared and microwave looks at the storm system's clouds, precipitation, temperatures and extent.
Visible and infrared images and animations of the storm's clouds and movement are created every 15 minutes by the NASA GOES Project at ...
Human amniotic epithelial cells, stem cells derived from human placenta left over from live births and generally discarded, proliferated and differentiated when they interacted with one kind of melatonin receptor, MT1. This potentially therapeutic response occurred when the stem cells were transplanted into laboratory test tube and animal models of stroke. The same cells did not perform similarly when interacting with melatonin receptor MT2.
Researchers from the University of South Florida's Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, and co-researchers in Brescia, ...
Hepatitis C is a leading cause of illness and death for individuals infected with both HIV and hepatitis C. Recent reports from around the world demonstrate that hepatitis C is emerging as a sexually transmitted infection among HIV-infected men who do not inject drugs. However, many HIV-infected men do not receive continued screening for hepatitis C throughout their HIV care. Hepatitis C symptoms often do not manifest themselves until the later stages of the illness, so people are not as likely to know that they have become infected and hence need further testing and ...
Several NASA satellites have been monitoring the growth of powerful and massive Cyclone Yasi and providing data on clouds, rainfall and intensity to forecasters as it nears Queensland, Australia. NASA data shows where the heaviest rainfall is occurring, frigid temperatures at the top of its thunderstorms and the size of Yasi's eye.
Tropical cyclone Yasi became much more powerful and was upgraded to a dangerous category fpur tropical cyclone on the Saffir Simpson scale on February 1, 2011.
A Cyclone Warning is now in effect for Queensland, Australia for coastal areas ...
Windshields that shed water so effectively that they don't need wipers. Ship hulls so slippery that they glide through the water more efficiently than ordinary hulls.
These are some of the potential applications for graphene, one of the hottest new materials in the field of nanotechnology, raised by the research of James Dickerson, assistant professor of physics at Vanderbilt.
Dickerson and his colleagues have figured out how to create a freestanding film of graphene oxide and alter its surface roughness so that it either causes water to bead up and run off or causes ...
HOUSTON — A targeted delivery combination selectively crosses the tight barrier that protects the brain from the bloodstream to home in on and bind to brain tumors, a research team led by scientists from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reported in the January issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
In experiments with mice, the researchers demonstrated that the targeted particles guide payloads to image tumors, treat tumors, or can potentially do both to monitor treatment as it occurs. Their findings open a new research avenue for detecting and ...
