F-18 fluroestradiol (FES)-PET/CT seems as efficient as commonplace imaging for staging girls with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive regionally superior breast most cancers or evaluating suspected recurrence, in line with a examine printed July 26 in JAMA Open Community.
In a medical trial performed on the Hoag Household Most cancers Institute in Irvine, CA, researchers examined the approach versus CT bone scans or FDG-PET/CT and located that it detected an equal variety of circumstances.
“These findings counsel that FES-PET/CT may very well be thought-about for staging or detection of recurrence in sufferers with ER-positive breast most cancers,” famous lead creator Gary A. Ulaner, MD, PhD, of the College of Southern California, Los Angeles.
Ladies with with regionally superior breast most cancers (LABC) have a excessive danger for distant metastases at preliminary prognosis and endure systemic staging with imaging to assist decide whether or not sufferers will endure remedy and what therapies are chosen.
F-18 fluoroestradiol (Cerianna, GE HealthCare) is a PET radiotracer permitted within the U.S. in 2020 that targets estrogen receptors, that are expressed in about 70% of breast cancers. Researchers are conducting ongoing analysis to outline the medical eventualities the place the tracer could also be most useful.
Thus far, there aren’t any knowledge evaluating FES-PET with present standard-of-care imaging, particularly CT bone scans or FDG PET/CT, for staging estrogen receptor (ER)-positive LABC or evaluating suspected recurrences, the authors famous.
On this part II examine, the researchers enrolled a 124 sufferers and cut up them into two cohorts: 62 sufferers with ER-positive LABC (cohort 1) and 62 sufferers with suspected recurrence (cohort 2). Contributors underwent each standard-of-care imaging and experimental FES PET/CT inside 14 days of one another. When there have been suspicious lesions on imaging, one was biopsied for histopathological reference commonplace to verify presence (true optimistic) or absence (false optimistic) of lesions.
In accordance with the outcomes, out of 14 metastases detected in cohort 1, standard-of-care imaging detected 12 and FES detected 11 (p > .99). In cohort 2, out of 23 true-positive findings, SOC detected 16 and FES detected 18 (p = 0.77). As well as, there have been 30 sufferers with invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), and 11 of those sufferers had biopsy-proven distant metastases or recurrent malignant tumors, with six detected by FES PET/CT solely.
“No important distinction was discovered between FES PET/CT and present [standard-of-care] imaging for the detection of distant metastases in sufferers with ER-positive LABC or recurrences in sufferers with ER-positive BC and suspected recurrence,” the group wrote.
Finally, the examine offers proof that FES PET/CT performs comparably with present standard-of-care imaging strategies for each of those medical indications, the researchers concluded.
In an accompanying editorial, David A. Mankoff, MD, PhD, of the College of Pennsylvania, and colleagues wrote that that the examine knowledge concerning staging sufferers with ILC is essential to notice. ILC is a subtype of breast most cancers that’s usually ER-positive and notoriously troublesome to detect on imaging as a result of it tends to develop in an infiltrative, much less cohesive means, they wrote.
Additional research are warranted, together with multisite trials, to help extra routine use in medical follow, they added.
“Total, this examine by Ulaner et al contributes essential knowledge to information using new molecular imaging instruments for [breast cancer] prognosis and staging, contributing to the general aim of precision breast oncology,” the editorial concluded.
The total examine is obtainable right here.

