Li C, Torres VC, He Y, Xu X, Basheer Y, Papavasiliou G, Samkoe KS, Brankov JG, Tichauer KM. Intraoperative Detection of Micrometastases in Whole Excised Lymph Nodes Using Fluorescent
Paired-Agent Imaging Principles: Identification of a Suitable Staining and Rinsing Protocol.
Mol Imaging Biol 2021;
23:537-549. [PMID:
33591478 DOI:
10.1007/s11307-021-01587-z]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Revised: 01/18/2021] [Accepted: 02/02/2021] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE
Correctly identifying nodal status is recognized as a critical prognostic factor in many cancer types and is essential to guide adjuvant treatment. Currently, surgical removal of lymph nodes followed by pathological examination is commonly performed as a standard-of-care to detect node metastases. However, conventional pathology protocols are time-consuming, yet less than 1 % of lymph node volumes are examined, resulting in a 30-60 % rate of missed micrometastases (0.2-2 mm in size).
PROCEDURES
This study presents a method to fluorescently stain excised lymph nodes using paired-agent molecular imaging principles, which entail co-administration of a molecular-targeted imaging agent with a suitable control (untargeted) agent, whereby any nonspecific retention of the targeted agent is accounted for by the signal from the control agent. Specifically, it was demonstrated that by dual-needle continuous infusion of either an antibody-based imaging agent pair (epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) targeted agent: IRDye-800CW labeled Cetuximab; control agent: IRDye-700DX-IgG) or an Affibody-based pair (EGFR targeted Affibody® agent: ABY-029; control agent IRDYe-700DX carboxylate) at 0.3 ml/min.
RESULTS
The results demonstrated the possibility to achieve >99 % sensitivity and > 95 % specificity for detection of a single micrometastasis (~0.2 mm diameter) in a whole lymph node within 22 min of tissue processing time.
CONCLUSION
The detection capabilities offer substantial improvements over existing intraoperative lymph node biopsy methods (e.g., frozen pathology has a micrometastasis sensitivity <20 %).
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