Role of [18F]FDG PET/CT in patients with invasive breast carcinoma of no special type: Literature review and comparison between guidelines.

PURPOSE: The recently released EANM/SNMMI guideline, endorsed by several important clinical and imaging societies in the field of breast cancer (BC) care (ACR, ESSO, ESTRO, EUSOBI/ESR, EUSOMA), emphasized the role of [18F]FDG PET/CT in management of patients with no special type (NST) BC. This review identifies and summarizes similarities, discrepancies and novelties of the EANM/SNMMI guideline compared to NCCN, ESMO and ABC recommendations. METHODS: The EANM/SNMMI guideline was based on a systematic literature search and the AGREE tool. The level of evidence was determined according to NICE criteria, and 85 % agreement or higher was reached regarding each statement. Comparisons with NCCN, ESMO and ABC guidelines were examined for specific clinical scenarios in patients with early stage through advanced and metastatic BC. RESULTS: Regarding initial staging of patients with NST BC, [18F]FDG PET/CT is the preferred modality in the EANM-SNMMI guideline, showing superiority as a single modality to a combination of contrast-enhanced CT of thorax-abdomen-pelvis plus bone scan in head-to-head comparisons and a randomized study. Its use is recommended in patients with clinical stage IIB or higher and may be useful in certain stage IIA cases of NST BC. In NCCN, ESMO, and ABC guidelines, [18F]FDG PET/CT is instead recommended as complementary to conventional imaging to solve inconclusive findings, although ESMO and ABC also suggest [18F]FDG PET/CT can replace conventional imaging for staging patients with high-risk and metastatic NST BC. During follow up, NCCN and ESMO only recommend diagnostic imaging if there is suspicion of recurrence. Similarly, EANM-SNMMI states that [18F]FDG PET/CT is useful to detect the site and extent of recurrence only when there is clinical or laboratory suspicion of recurrence, or when conventional imaging methods are equivocal. The EANM-SNMMI guideline is the first to emphasize a role of [18F]FDG PET/CT for assessing early metabolic response to primary systemic therapy, particularly for HER2+ BC and TNBC. In the metastatic setting, EANM-SNMMI state that [18F]FDG PET/CT may help evaluate bone metastases and determine early response to treatment, in agreement with guidelines from ESMO. CONCLUSIONS: The recently released EANM/SNMMI guideline reinforces the role of [18F]FDG PET/CT in the management of patients with NST BC supported by extensive evidence of its utility in several clinical scenarios.

Baseline Immune State and T-cell Clonal Kinetics are Associated with Durable Response to CAR-T Therapy in Large B-cell Lymphoma.

Engineered cellular therapy with CD19-targeting chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-T) has revolutionized outcomes for patients with relapsed/refractory Large B-Cell Lymphoma (LBCL), but the cellular and molecular features associated with response remain largely unresolved. We analyzed serial peripheral blood samples ranging from day of apheresis (day -28/baseline) to 28 days after CAR-T infusion from 50 patients with LBCL treated with axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel) by integrating single cell RNA and TCR sequencing (scRNA-seq/scTCR-seq), flow cytometry, and mass cytometry (CyTOF) to characterize features associated with response to CAR-T. Pretreatment patient characteristics associated with response included presence of B cells and increased lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (ALC/AMC). Infusion products from responders were enriched for clonally expanded, highly activated CD8+ T cells. We expanded these observations to 99 patients from the ZUMA-1 cohort and identified a subset of patients with elevated baseline B cells, 80% of whom were complete responders. We integrated B cell proportion 0.5% and ALC/AMC 1.2 into a two-factor predictive model and applied this model to the ZUMA-1 cohort. Estimated progression free survival (PFS) at 1 year in patients meeting one or both criteria was 65% versus 31% for patients meeting neither criterion. Our results suggest that patients' immunologic state at baseline affects likelihood of response to CAR-T through both modulation of the T cell apheresis product composition and promoting a more favorable circulating immune compartment prior to therapy. These baseline immunologic features, measured readily in the clinical setting prior to CAR-T, can be applied to predict response to therapy.

Evaluating the added value of concurrent contrast-enhanced diagnostic CT for PSMA-PET/CT Interpretation.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: To determine whether concurrent contrast-enhanced diagnostic CT (DxCT) confers added diagnostic certainty compared to PSMA-PET/CT alone. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective multi-reader study analyzed imaging comprising combined F-18-piflufolastat PSMA-PET/CT with diagnostic chest/abdominopelvic CT from prostate cancer patients within the first 6 months of FDA-approval of the PET agent. Six nuclear radiology readers were randomly presented with PSMA-PET/CT studies with or without DxCT and asked to report their diagnostic certainty for PSMA-avid lesions found on PET. Subsequently, readers re-reviewed the same study after an interlude (with the CT if not previously presented and vice-versa) to determine if DxCT altered their diagnostic assessment. Inter-rater concordance was assessed on a subset of images read by all readers. Diagnostic certainties for PSMA-PET/CT with and without DxCT were compared, and the variables for which DxCT may add value were examined. RESULTS: Good inter-rater concordance across readers was noted for both PET/CT (Finn's coefficient of reliability for overall scan certainty: 0.85,p < 0.01) and combined DxCT-PET/CT (0.59,p < 0.01). Overall certainty and concordance between PET/CT and combined DxCT-PET/CT datasets were similar (overall scan certainty: 92% ± 16 vs. 92% ± 17,p = 0.43), with no significant advantage for adding DxCT across different anatomic locations or clinical parameters. A slight predilection for combined DxCT-PET/CT was noted when interpreting images acquired for the initial staging of prostate cancer (89% ± 16 vs. 93% ± 17,p = 0.08). CONCLUSION: Good inter-reader concordance can be achieved across different training levels with PSMA-PET/CT. Furthermore, using DxCT concurrent with PSMA-PET/CT does not significantly improve diagnostic certainty for most indications but may be useful for initial staging.

Joint EANM-SNMMI guideline on the role of 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT in no special type breast cancer : (endorsed by the ACR, ESSO, ESTRO, EUSOBI/ESR, and EUSOMA).

INTRODUCTION: There is much literature about the role of 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT in patients with breast cancer (BC). However, there exists no international guideline with involvement of the nuclear medicine societies about this subject. PURPOSE: To provide an organized, international, state-of-the-art, and multidisciplinary guideline, led by experts of two nuclear medicine societies (EANM and SNMMI) and representation of important societies in the field of BC (ACR, ESSO, ESTRO, EUSOBI/ESR, and EUSOMA). METHODS: Literature review and expert discussion were performed with the aim of collecting updated information regarding the role of 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT in patients with no special type (NST) BC and summarizing its indications according to scientific evidence. Recommendations were scored according to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) criteria. RESULTS: Quantitative PET features (SUV, MTV, TLG) are valuable prognostic parameters. In baseline staging, 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT plays a role from stage IIB through stage IV. When assessing response to therapy, 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT should be performed on certified scanners, and reported either according to PERCIST, EORTC PET, or EANM immunotherapy response criteria, as appropriate. 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT may be useful to assess early metabolic response, particularly in non-metastatic triple-negative and HER2+ tumours. 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT is useful to detect the site and extent of recurrence when conventional imaging methods are equivocal and when there is clinical and/or laboratorial suspicion of relapse. Recent developments are promising. CONCLUSION: 2-[18F]FDG PET/CT is extremely useful in BC management, as supported by extensive evidence of its utility compared to other imaging modalities in several clinical scenarios.

Neuroendocrine Tumors: Diagnostics.

Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN) are rare tumors arising from neuroendocrine cells. NEN are ideally suited for a theragnostic approach due to their specific expression of somatostatin receptors (SSTR). SSTR imaging of NEN dates back to the 1980s, but has evolved recently due to the introduction of more sensitive SSTR PET radiotracers. SSTR PET is a primary imaging modality for identifying NEN and characterizing SSTR expression. SSTR PET is complementary to anatomic imaging for assessing tumor response to treatment. SSTR PET is mandated to determine eligibility for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy. Here, the role of imaging to aid management of NEN is reviewed.

Alpha-emitter Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy in Neuroendocrine Tumors.

Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) has become mainstream therapy of metastatic neuroendocrine tumors not controlled by somatostatin analog therapy. Currently, beta particle-emitting radiopharmaceuticals are the mainstay of PRRT. Alpha particle-emitting radiopharmaceuticals have a theoretic advantage over beta emitters in terms of improved therapeutic efficacy due to higher cancer cell death and lower nontarget tissue radiation-induced adverse events due to shorter path length of alpha particles. We discuss the available evidence for and the role of alpha particle PRRT.

Randomized Phase II Study Evaluating the Addition of Pembrolizumab to Radium-223 in Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer.

The checkpoint immunotherapeutic pembrolizumab induces responses in a small minority of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). Radium-223 (R223) may increase immunogenicity of bone metastases and increase pembrolizumab (P) activity. In a randomized phase II study, we assessed the effect of R223+P compared with R223 on tumor immune infiltration, safety, and clinical outcomes in patients with mCRPC. The primary endpoint was differences in CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell infiltrate in 8-week versus baseline bone metastasis biopsies; secondary endpoints were safety, radiographic progression-free survival (rPFS), and overall survival (OS). Of the 42 treated patients (29 R223+P, 13 R223), 18 R223+P and 8 R223 patients had evaluable paired tumor biopsies. Median fold-change of CD4+ T cells was -0.7 (range: -9.3 to 4.7) with R223+P and 0.1 (-11.1 to 3.7) with R223 (P = 0.66); for CD8+ T cells, median fold-change was -0.6 (-7.4 to 5.3) with R223+P and -1.3 (-3.1 to 4.8) with R223 (P = 0.66). Median rPFS and OS was 6.1 (95% confidence interval: 2.7-11.0) and 16.9 months [12.7-not reached (NR)], respectively, with R223+P and 5.7 (2.6-NR) and 16.0 (9.0-NR), respectively, with R223. Although R223+P was well tolerated with no unexpected toxicity, the combination did not improve efficacy. High-dimensional flow cytometry demonstrated minimal immune modulation with R223, whereas R223+P induced CTLA-4 expression on circulating CD4+ T cells. Clinical responders possessed lower circulating frequencies of Ki67+ T and myeloid cells at baseline and higher circulating frequencies of TIM-3+ T and myeloid cells by week 9. Although R223+P did not induce T-cell infiltration into the tumor microenvironment, exhaustion of induced peripheral T-cell immune responses may dampen the combination's clinical activity.

The Current and Future Roles of Precision Oncology in Advanced Breast Cancer.

Breast cancer is a common but heterogeneous disease characterized by several biologic features, including tumor grade, hormone receptor status, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 status, and gene expression assays. These biologic and genomic features drive treatment decisions. In the advanced disease setting, inter- and intrapatient tumor heterogeneity is increasingly recognized as a challenge for optimizing treatment. Recent evidence and the recent approval of novel radiopharmaceuticals have increased recognition and acceptance of the potential of molecular imaging as a biomarker to impact and guide management decisions for advanced breast cancer.

Salvage Therapy for Prostate Cancer: AUA/ASTRO/SUO Guideline Part III: Salvage Therapy After Radiotherapy or Focal Therapy, Pelvic Nodal Recurrence and Oligometastasis, and Future Directions.

PURPOSE: The summary presented herein covers recommendations on salvage therapy for recurrent prostate cancer intended to facilitate care decisions and aid clinicians in caring for patients who have experienced a recurrence following prior treatment with curative intent. This is Part III of a three-part series focusing on evaluation and management of suspected non-metastatic recurrence after radiotherapy (RT) and focal therapy, evaluation and management of regional recurrence, management for molecular imaging metastatic recurrence, and future directions. Please refer to Part I for discussion of treatment decision-making and Part II for discussion of treatment delivery for non-metastatic biochemical recurrence (BCR) after radical prostatectomy (RP). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The systematic review that informs this Guideline was based on searches in Ovid MEDLINE (1946 to July 21, 2022), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (through August 2022), and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (through August 2022). Update searches were conducted on July 26, 2023. Searches were supplemented by reviewing electronic database reference lists of relevant articles. RESULTS: In a collaborative effort between AUA, ASTRO, and SUO, the Salvage Therapy for Prostate Cancer Guideline Panel developed evidence- and consensus-based guideline statements to provide guidance for the care of patients who experience BCR after initial definitive local therapy for clinically localized disease. CONCLUSIONS: Continuous and deliberate efforts for multidisciplinary care in prostate cancer will be required to optimize and improve the oncologic and functional outcomes of patients treated with salvage therapies in the future.

Salvage Therapy for Prostate Cancer: AUA/ASTRO/SUO Guideline Part I: Introduction and Treatment Decision-Making at the Time of Suspected Biochemical Recurrence after Radical Prostatectomy.

PURPOSE: The summary presented herein covers recommendations on salvage therapy for recurrent prostate cancer intended to facilitate care decisions and aid clinicians in caring for patients who have experienced a recurrence following prior treatment with curative intent. This is Part I of a three-part series focusing on treatment decision-making at the time of suspected biochemical recurrence (BCR) after radical prostatectomy (RP). Please refer to Part II for discussion of treatment delivery for non-metastatic BCR after RP and Part III for discussion of evaluation and management of recurrence after radiotherapy (RT) and focal therapy, regional recurrence, and oligometastasis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The systematic review that informs this Guideline was based on searches in Ovid MEDLINE (1946 to July 21, 2022), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (through August 2022), and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (through August 2022). Update searches were conducted on July 26, 2023. Searches were supplemented by reviewing electronic database reference lists of relevant articles. RESULTS: In a collaborative effort between AUA, ASTRO, and SUO, the Salvage Therapy for Prostate Cancer Panel developed evidence- and consensus-based statements to provide guidance for the care of patients who experience BCR after initial definitive local therapy for clinically localized disease. CONCLUSIONS: Advancing work in the area of diagnostic tools (particularly imaging), biomarkers, radiation delivery, and biological manipulation with the evolving armamentarium of therapeutic agents will undoubtedly present new opportunities for patients to experience long-term control of their cancer while minimizing toxicity.

Salvage Therapy for Prostate Cancer: AUA/ASTRO/SUO Guideline Part II: Treatment Delivery for Non-metastatic Biochemical Recurrence After Primary Radical Prostatectomy.

PURPOSE: The summary presented herein covers recommendations on salvage therapy for recurrent prostate cancer intended to facilitate care decisions and aid clinicians in caring for patients who have experienced a recurrence following prior treatment with curative intent. This is Part II of a three-part series focusing on treatment delivery for non-metastatic biochemical recurrence (BCR) after primary radical prostatectomy (RP). Please refer to Part I for discussion of treatment decision-making and Part III for discussion of evaluation and management of recurrence after radiotherapy (RT) and focal therapy, regional recurrence, and oligometastasis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The systematic review that informs this Guideline was based on searches in Ovid MEDLINE (1946 to July 21, 2022), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (through August 2022), and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (through August 2022). Update searches were conducted on July 26, 2023. Searches were supplemented by reviewing electronic database reference lists of relevant articles. RESULTS: In a collaborative effort between AUA, ASTRO, and SUO, the Salvage Therapy for Prostate Cancer Panel developed evidence- and consensus-based guideline statements to provide guidance for the care of patients who experience BCR after initial definitive local therapy for clinically localized disease. CONCLUSIONS: Optimizing and personalizing the approach to salvage therapy remains an ongoing area of work in the field of genitourinary oncology and represents an area of research and clinical care that requires well-coordinated, multi-disciplinary efforts.

Evaluation of mediastinal lymph node segmentation of heterogeneous CT data with full and weak supervision.

Accurate lymph node size estimation is critical for staging cancer patients, initial therapeutic management, and assessing response to therapy. Current standard practice for quantifying lymph node size is based on a variety of criteria that use uni-directional or bi-directional measurements. Segmentation in 3D can provide more accurate evaluations of the lymph node size. Fully convolutional neural networks (FCNs) have achieved state-of-the-art results in segmentation for numerous medical imaging applications, including lymph node segmentation. Adoption of deep learning segmentation models in clinical trials often faces numerous challenges. These include lack of pixel-level ground truth annotations for training, generalizability of the models on unseen test domains due to the heterogeneity of test cases and variation of imaging parameters. In this paper, we studied and evaluated the performance of lymph node segmentation models on a dataset that was completely independent of the one used to create the models. We analyzed the generalizability of the models in the face of a heterogeneous dataset and assessed the potential effects of different disease conditions and imaging parameters. Furthermore, we systematically compared fully-supervised and weakly-supervised methods in this context. We evaluated the proposed methods using an independent dataset comprising 806 mediastinal lymph nodes from 540 unique patients. The results show that performance achieved on the independent test set is comparable to that on the training set. Furthermore, neither the underlying disease nor the heterogeneous imaging parameters impacted the performance of the models. Finally, the results indicate that our weakly-supervised method attains 90%- 91% of the performance achieved by the fully supervised training.

Late Subacute Cerebral Hematoma Mimicking a Metastasis on PSMA PET/CT.

ABSTRACT: A 64-year-old man with history of prostate cancer was found to have rising prostate-specific antigen after radical prostatectomy. 18 F-DCFPyL PET/CT demonstrated a prostate-specific membrane antigen-avid brain lesion in the left frontal lobe and no other findings to account for rising prostate-specific antigen. Brain MRI demonstrated a small intraparenchymal hematoma with late subacute features in this location. The patient reported a seizure 3 weeks before but was otherwise asymptomatic, and neurologic examination was normal. Follow-up MRI demonstrated gradual decrease in size of the hematoma without treatment.

Standardized Definitions for Efficacy End Points in Neoadjuvant Breast Cancer Clinical Trials: NeoSTEEP.

PURPOSE: The Standardized Definitions for Efficacy End Points (STEEP) criteria, established in 2007 and updated in 2021 (STEEP 2.0), provide standardized definitions of adjuvant breast cancer (BC) end points. STEEP 2.0 identified a need to separately address end points for neoadjuvant clinical trials. The multidisciplinary NeoSTEEP working group of experts was convened to critically evaluate and align neoadjuvant BC trial end points. METHODS: The NeoSTEEP working group concentrated on neoadjuvant systemic therapy end points in clinical trials with efficacy outcomes-both pathologic and time-to-event survival end points-particularly for registrational intent. Special considerations for subtypes and therapeutic approaches, imaging, nodal staging at surgery, bilateral and multifocal diseases, correlative tissue collection, and US Food and Drug Administration regulatory considerations were contemplated. RESULTS: The working group recommends a preferred definition of pathologic complete response (pCR) as the absence of residual invasive cancer in the complete resected breast specimen and all sampled regional lymph nodes (ypT0/Tis ypN0 per AJCC staging). Residual cancer burden should be a secondary end point to facilitate future assessment of its utility. Alternative end points are needed for hormone receptor-positive disease. Time-to-event survival end point definitions should pay particular attention to the measurement starting point. Trials should include end points originating at random assignment (event-free survival and overall survival) to capture presurgery progression and deaths as events. Secondary end points adapted from STEEP 2.0, which are defined from starting at curative-intent surgery, may also be appropriate. Specification and standardization of biopsy protocols, imaging, and pathologic nodal evaluation are also crucial. CONCLUSION: End points in addition to pCR should be selected on the basis of clinical and biologic aspects of the tumor and the therapeutic agent investigated. Consistent prespecified definitions and interventions are paramount for clinically meaningful trial results and cross-trial comparison.

Report on the PET/CT Image-Based Radiation Dosimetry of [18F]FDHT in Women, a Validated Imaging Agent with New Applications for Evaluation of Androgen Receptor Status in Women with Metastatic Breast Cancer.

In a prospective clinical trial, [18F]fluoro-5α-dihydrotestosterone ([18F]FDHT), the radiolabeled analog of the androgen dihydrotestosterone, was used as a PET/CT imaging agent for in vivo assessment of metastatic androgen receptor-positive breast cancer in postmenopausal women. To our knowledge, this article presents the first report of PET/CT image-based radiation dosimetry of [18F]FDHT in women. Methods: [18F]FDHT PET/CT imaging was performed on a cohort of 11 women at baseline before the start of therapy and at 2 additional time points during selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM) therapy for androgen receptor-positive breast cancer. Volumes of interest (VOIs) were placed over the whole body and within source organs seen on the PET/CT images, and the time-integrated activity coefficients of [18F]FDHT were derived. The time-integrated activity coefficients for the urinary bladder were calculated using the dynamic urinary bladder model in OLINDA/EXM software, with biologic half-life for urinary excretion derived from VOI measurements of the whole body in postvoid PET/CT images. The time-integrated activity coefficients for all other organs were calculated from VOI measurements in the organs and the physical half-life of 18F. Organ dose and effective dose calculations were then performed using MIRDcalc, version 1.1. Results: At baseline before SARM therapy, the effective dose for [18F]FDHT in women was calculated as 0.020 ± 0.0005 mSv/MBq, and the urinary bladder was the organ at risk, with an average absorbed dose of 0.074 ± 0.011 mGy/MBq. Statistically significant decreases in liver SUV or uptake of [18F]FDHT were found at the 2 additional time points on SARM therapy (linear mixed model, P < 0.05). Likewise, absorbed dose to the liver also decreased by a small but statistically significant amount at the 2 additional time points (linear mixed model, P < 0.05). Neighboring abdominal organs of the gallbladder wall, stomach, pancreas, and adrenals also showed statistically significant decreases in absorbed dose (linear mixed model, P < 0.05). The urinary bladder wall remained the organ at risk at all time points. Absorbed dose to the urinary bladder wall did not show statistically significant changes from baseline at any of the time points (linear mixed model, P ≥ 0.05). Effective dose also did not show statistically significant changes from baseline (linear mixed model, P ≥ 0.05). Conclusion: Effective dose for [18F]FDHT in women before SARM therapy was calculated as 0.020 ± 0.0005 mSv/MBq. The urinary bladder wall was the organ at risk, with an absorbed dose of 0.074 ± 0.011 mGy/MBq.