Novel molecular pharmacological studies in vivo in the development of anti-cancer agents
File(s)
Author(s)
Brock, Cathryn Susan
Type
Thesis
Abstract
Positron emission tomography (PET) provides non-invasive, in vivo, functionalimaging data. Using PET and [11Cmethyl]temozolomide radiolabelled in the 3Nmethyl position, these studies demonstrate pharmacokinetics safely in vivo in man at tracer doses (SOmcg). The biodistribution of [11Cmethyl]temozolomide in the normal extracranial organs is shown and penetration of the blood-brain barrier is confirmed with accumulation of tracer in primary brain tumours. Using area under the curve (AUC) calculations, tumour [llCmethyl]temozolomide exposure is significantly greater than that of normal brain (p<0.001), although less tumour exposure is seen in the full-dose studies, (p<0.002). Tumour perfusion does not affect tumour [11Cmethyl]temozolomide exposure, yet there is greater tumour extraction (p<0.02) and retention (p<0.05) of [11Cmethyl]temozolomide at 60 minutes. A relationship is seen between [11Cmethyl]temozolomide retention at 90 minutes in tumours with response duration and survival (p<0.05). Using fluorine-18 radiolabelled fluorodeoxyglucose ([18F]FDG) which provides a measure of tissue glucose utilisation, pharmacodynamic endpoints can be related to tumour response. A reduction of >25% in glucose utilisation of the tumour high uptake focus (MRGluHuF), within 2 weeks of starting temozolomide, is shown to correlate with patient clinical response. A <25% change in MRGlumJF correlates with stable disease. The 3-compartment modelling (MRGlu) is better than standardised uptake values (SUV) at separating patients into responding and non-responding groups. Assessment of less invasive methods of generating the arterial input function necessary for 3-compartment modelling determined that although left ventricular sampling (n=l0) is a good surrogate method (r2=0.7940) a population-generated, arterial input function is better (r2=0.8789). In addition, it was demonstrated that it was 5 preferable to scale the population-generated input function using the arteriovenous [18F] concentration. Variability of <4.5% (tumour) and <6.1% (brain) is seen using arteriovenous scaling and 3-compartment modelling.
Version
Imperial Users only
Date Awarded
2003
Advisor
Price, Professor P. M.
Newlands, Professor E. S.
Sponsor
Cancer Research Campaign and Schering Plough (UK)
Publisher Department
MRC Cyclotron Unit Imperial College London.
Publisher Institution
Imperial College London
Qualification Level
Doctoral
Qualification Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Author Permission
Permission not granted