Monitoring Response to Treatment in the Development of Anti-Cancer Drugs Using Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
- PDF / 636,001 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 504 x 720.24 pts Page_size
- 22 Downloads / 176 Views
0092-8615/!39 Copyright 0 1999 Drug Information Association Inc.
MONITORING RESPONSE TO TREATMENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ANTI-CANCER DRUGS USING POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY (PET) HELENYOUNG,BSc HONS,MSc, PHD, BROCK,MB, BS, MRCP, CATHRYN PAULAWELLS,MB, BS, MRCP, FRCP, PATPRICE,B BCHIR,MA, MD, FRCP, FRCR CRC PET Oncology Research Group, MRC Cyclotron Unit, Imperial College School of Medicine, London, United Kingdom
Current assessment of the effect of anticancer drugs relies on measurement of tumor volume using structural imaging modalities such as CT..MRI. Functional imaging allows assessment of tumor physiology and metabolism in vivo. These measurements are more directly related to the anticancer drug target and may provide more specific and sensitive methods of assessing anticancer drug activity and response. Positron emission tomography (PET)is a sensitive, quantitative method of imaging radiotracers labeled with biologically important radionuclides. PET can be used to measure alterations in perfusion in response to pharmacological manipulation of tumor vasculature to improve drug delivery and in the future to assess novel therapeutic agents targeted directly at the tumor vasculature. 2-["C]-thymidine,a marker of proliferation. and ['8F]-FDC,a marker of glucose metabolism reflecting tumor cell viabiliv, may provide more sensitive methods of assessing anticancer drugs for in vivo activity for Phase I and II trials. In addition, 2-["C]thymidine m a y be used to demonstrate the pharmacodynamic effects of specific enzyme inhibitors. Improved identification and measurement of in vivo activity in Phase ID1 trials may assist drug selection prior to commencement of very costly Phase III assessment. Key Words: Positron imaging tomography; Drug assessment; Cancer therapy
BACKGROUND CURRENTLY, THE COST OF developing a new drug for clinical use is on the order
Presented at the DIA Workshop "Diagnostic Imaging: Advances and International Standardization in Compound Development and Diagnostic Procedures," November 20-21, 1997, Milan, Italy. Reprint address: Dr. Pat Price. MRC Cyclotron Unit, Imperial College School of Medicine, Hammer" . smith Campus, Du Cane Rd., London, UK W12 0
of $400 million and takes approximately 12 years. Global sales are required to recoup research and development costs and approximately 25% of drugs make a profit within the time scale of'a patent.Validation through the clinical trials process is the largest component of research and development expenditure.Research is focused within the pharmaceutical industry and associated academic institutions to improve candidate drug selection and efficacy of testing through clinical trials, thus reducing the time taken to intro-
237 Downloaded from dij.sagepub.com at USD & Wegner Health Science Information Center on May 7, 2015
238
Helen Young, Cathryn Brock, Paula Wells, and Pat Price
duce a drug to the marketplace and containing escalating costs of drug development. Phase I trials are designed to acquire pharmacokinetic data on drug handling through
Data Loading...
