FINE Study: Fap Imaging in LuNg cancEr
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Imaging Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP) in non-small cell lung cancer using PET scan and correlation with outcomes of usual therapy.
IRAS ID
299962
Contact name
Ahsan Akram
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Edinburgh
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
Lung Cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death worldwide and most patients have progressive disease or relapse despite therapy and new therapies that target the immune system. The tumour microenvironment (TME) is a collection of several different cell types, including a cell called fibroblasts. The fibroblasts within lung cancer express a protein called FAP and this protein can now be imaged using scans called PET scans.
Therefore, using imaging (with a specialised PET scan) could allow us to determine which patients have a FAP active tumour, and which do not, which in turn could inform us as to which patients may need additional treatments targeting the TME/fibroblasts to help therapy be more effective. This study looks to lay the foundations for the use of PET imaging of FAP in NSCLC by using small numbers of patients who have been diagnosed with lung cancer and perform a FAP-PET scan at a single time point, following which the patients all receive their usual standard care. We will recruit patients who are planned to have surgical excision of the tumour, as well as patients who are due to have drug based anti-cancer therapy (including immune targeting regimes). This study looks to help us understand if the FAP-PET signal corresponds to i) the amount of FAP active fibroblasts in a tumour and ii) if this can potentially indicate subsequent failure of treatment, prior to subsequent larger trials.REC name
West of Scotland REC 5
REC reference
21/WS/0094
Date of REC Opinion
27 Aug 2021
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion