PDL1 expression in cancer (PECan study)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Measurement of PDL1 expression in cancer to monitor immunotherapy treatment response
IRAS ID
256684
Contact name
Gary J R Cook
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
New immunotherapeutic drugs are allowing much better response rates in cancers previously regarded as difficult to treat, e.g. lung cancer and melanoma. However, only a proportion of patients respond to these drugs and there are significant side effects in some. Treatment decisions usually depend on whether certain tumour characteristics can be seen in biopsy samples (e.g. PDL1 expression). However, it is recognised that biopsy samples may not be adequate as they only allow a small part of the tumour to be analysed. Medical imaging, that can characterise a whole tumour, including metastases, therefore has potential to decide which patients are likely to respond to immunotherapy drugs and can be repeated during treatment to monitor efficacy, without the need for repeated biopsies.
We are now able to measure PDL1 expression (the target on tumours that immunotherapy drugs attack) with a nuclear medicine imaging technique which is similar to a standard bone scan (99mTc-PDL1 single photon emission computed tomography - SPECT/CT).We propose testing whether measurement of PDL1 expression with SPECT/CT imaging before and 9 (lung) 12 (melanoma) weeks after commencing immunotherapy in lung cancer and melanoma patients can predict how well patients will respond compared to our standard imaging tests (CT scan and FDG PET/CT). We will also compare how well the SPECT/CT imaging compares to PDL1 expression that is measured on biopsy specimens.
We will scan (99mTc-PDL1 SPECT/CT) 15 patients with lung cancer and 15 patients with melanoma who are due to start immunotherapy before and 9 or 12 weeks into treatment.REC name
London - Westminster Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/0472
Date of REC Opinion
12 Jun 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion