Imaging leukocyte accumulation in cancers
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Imaging and quantification of leukocyte accumulation in tumours before and after therapy
IRAS ID
231866
Contact name
Ferdia Gallagher
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Research Summary
Immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown great promise in the treatment of several cancers. This is a class of treatment which slow tumour growth by enhancing the immune system attack on cancer.
Current imaging methods may not be the best methods for evaluating the effect of immune checkpoint inhibitors on tumour growth at early timepoints of treatment. There is a need to develop more advanced imaging approaches to study early changes in immune response within tumours following treatment.
The Department of Medicine has developed methods to image the fate of radiolabelled immune cells in humans using Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT). This method has been applied to the imaging of immune cells accumulation in inflammation of the lungs and has recently been extended to the imaging of immune cells in lung cancer.
The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of SPECT imaging radiolabelled immune cells in studying changes in the accumulation of immune cells in tumours of metastatic melanoma patients following treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Measurements obtained from imaging will be correlated with histology and clinical outcome for individual patients.
Lay summary of study results
There are no results to report, as only one patient was recruited. The study was discontinued due to recruitment challenges and the completion of the PhD student’s tenure, with no other personnel available to continue the research.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/EE/0039
Date of REC Opinion
3 May 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion