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Facts and Hopes for PET Imaging-Derived Immunotherapy Biomarkers
Derk Jan A de Groot1, Marjolijn N Lub-de Hooge2, Tom van Meerten3
1Department of Medical Oncology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands.
Abstract:
Current immunotherapies have brought major progress in cancer treatments, but not all patients benefit. Therefore, insight into reasons for treatment failure and optimal biomarkers for patient selection are warranted. Current approved biomarkers for cancer immunotherapy do not provide insight into characteristics across tumor lesions in a patient or their heterogeneity. Here, whole-body PET imaging with specific tracers may provide support. Moreover, the biodistribution of cell therapies and complex molecules, such as bispecific antibodies, can be visualized by PET imaging, and repeat PET imaging allows to study the whole-body kinetics of the immune response. In this review, we present the status of using PET imaging-derived biomarkers for patients with cancer receiving immunotherapy. Next, the hopes and scientific challenges ahead to optimize current PET imaging biomarker development and to discover novel PET-derived baseline and dynamic biomarkers to potentially guide us in drug development and more precise patient and therapy selection will be discussed.
Insights
Whole-body PET imaging offers new biomarkers to understand why cancer immunotherapies fail and to select patients better. This approach visualizes treatment distribution and immune response kinetics for improved cancer care.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Immunology
- Radiology
- Medical Imaging
Background:
- Cancer immunotherapies have advanced treatment but lack universal efficacy.
- Current biomarkers for immunotherapy do not capture tumor heterogeneity or patient-wide characteristics.
- Understanding treatment failure and identifying optimal patient selection biomarkers are critical.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the current use of PET imaging-derived biomarkers in cancer immunotherapy.
- To discuss the potential of PET imaging for assessing treatment response and guiding patient selection.
- To explore future directions in PET biomarker development for personalized cancer therapy.
Main Methods:
- Review of current literature on PET imaging in cancer immunotherapy.
- Discussion of PET tracer applications for visualizing biodistribution of therapies (e.g., cell therapies, bispecific antibodies).
- Exploration of repeat PET imaging for studying immune response kinetics.
Main Results:
- PET imaging can visualize whole-body biodistribution of immunotherapies and immune responses.
- PET-derived biomarkers can potentially reveal insights into treatment failure and heterogeneity.
- Current PET applications show promise for patient selection and drug development.
Conclusions:
- PET imaging offers a powerful tool for developing novel baseline and dynamic biomarkers in cancer immunotherapy.
- Optimizing PET imaging biomarkers can lead to more precise patient and therapy selection.
- Further research is needed to overcome scientific challenges and fully realize the potential of PET in guiding cancer immunotherapy.
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