PET imaging of chemokine receptor CXCR4 in patients with primary and recurrent breast carcinoma

ConclusionsCXCR4-directed PET imaging in patients with primary and recurrent breast cancer is feasible; however, tumor detectability is significantly lower compared to18F-FDG PET. Moreover, we did not find any correlation between aforementioned prognostic factors of breast cancer and CXCR4-targeted tracer accumulation. Based on these results in a small patient cohort, CXCR4-targeted PET imaging does not seem to be suitable as a general diagnostic tool for imaging of breast cancer. Future CXCR4 imaging studies should investigate whether this modality might be useful in more specific applications, e.g., in therapeutic approaches especially under the view of current developments in targeted immune cell and immune checkpoint inhibitory therapy.
Source: EJNMMI Research - Category: Radiology Source Type: research