Abstract
Breast cancer is a heterogenetic tumor at the cellular level with multiple factors and components. The inconsistent expression of molecular markers during disease progression reduces the accuracy of diagnosis and efficacy of target-specific therapy. Single target-specific imaging agents can only provide limited tumor information at one time point. In contrast, multiple target-specific imaging agents can increase the accuracy of diagnosis. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the ability of multi-agent imaging to discriminate such differences in single tumor. Mice bearing human cancer cell xenografts were tested to determine individual differences under optimal experimental conditions. Neovasculature agent (RGD peptide), tumor stromal agent (matrix metalloproteinase), and tumor cell markers (epidermal growth factor, Her-2, interleukin 11) imaging agents were labeled with reporters. 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose was used to evaluate the tumor glucose status. Optical, X-ray, positron emission tomography, and computer tomography imaging modalities were used to determine tumor characteristics. Tumor size and imaging data demonstrated that individual differences exist under optimal experimental conditions. The target-specific agents used in the study bind to human breast cancer cell lines in vitro and xenografts in vivo. The pattern of binding corresponds to that of tumor markers. Multi-agent imaging had complementary effects in tumor detection. Multiple noninvasive imaging agents and modalities are complementary in the interrogation of unique biological information from each individual tumor. Such multi-agent approaches provide methods to study several disease components simultaneously. In addition, the imaging results provide information on disease status at the molecular level.
Highlights
Breast cancer development involves interactions of tumor cells, tumor stroma, factors in the genetic background of the patient, and environmental influences [1,2,3,4,5]
The results show that such an approach is feasible but more importantly, that unique biological information on individual tumors can be detected by the method [10, 11]
We have demonstrated the use of multiple imaging agents and modalities to study tumor characteristics
Summary
Breast cancer development involves interactions of tumor cells, tumor stroma, factors in the genetic background of the patient, and environmental influences [1,2,3,4,5]. Breast cancer cells have the ability to adapt their microenvironment and survive under varying conditions, even during chemotherapy. This suggests that multiple tumor components are constantly changing to maintain proliferation and metastasis of the cancer cells. Multiple Target-Specific Molecular Agents Imaging Breast Cancer and clinical types [6,7,8]. A combination of serum markers, genetic fingerprint, and target-specific molecular imaging may provide improvements in diagnosis and evaluation of responses to treatment [9]. Recent clinical trials have demonstrated the benefits of multiple target-specific imaging approaches to evaluate the risk of treatment resistance and poor outcome. The clinical studies confirmed that tumor progression is a dynamic process, and the same tumor shows biological variability at any one time point [10]
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