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Inter-heterogeneity and intra-heterogeneity of αvβ3 in non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer patients as revealed by 68Ga-RGD2 PET imaging

European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging volume 44, pages 1520–1528 (2017)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

Integrin αvβ3 is the therapeutic target of the anti-angiogenic drug cilengitide. The objective of this study was to compare αvβ3 levels in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients, by using the positron emission tomography (PET) tracer 68Ga-labeled dimerized-RGD (68Ga-RGD2).

Methods

Thirty-one patients with pathologically confirmed lung cancer were enrolled (21 were NSCLC and 10 were SCLC). PET/CT images were acquired using 68Ga-RGD2.18F-FDG PET/CT images were also acquired on the consecutive day as reference. The standard uptake values (SUV) and the tumor/nontarget (T/NT) values were quantitatively compared. Expression of the angiogenesis marker αvβ3 in NSCLC and SCLC lesions was analyzed by immunohistochemistry.

Results

The 18F-FDG SUVmax and the SUVmean were not significantly different between NSCLC and SCLC patients. The 68Ga-RGD2 uptake of SCLC patients was at background levels in both SUV and T/NT measurements and was significantly lower than that of NSCLC patients. The range value of 68Ga-RGD2 SUVmean was 4.5 in the NSCLC group and 2.2 in the SCLC group, while the variation coefficient was 36.2% and 39.3% in NSCLC and SCLC primary lesions, respectively. Heterogeneity between primary lesions and putative distant metastases was also observed in some NSCLC cases. Immunostaining showed that αvβ3 integrin was expressed in the cells and neovasculature of NSCLC lesions, while SCLC samples had negative expression.

Conclusions

The uptake of 68Ga-RGD2 in SCLC patients is significantly lower than that in NSCLC patients, indicating a lower αvβ3 target level for cilengitide in SCLC. Apparent intra-tumor heterogeneities of αvβ3 also exist in both NSCLC and SCLC. Such inter- and intra-heterogeneity of αvβ3 may potentially improve current applications of αvβ3-targeted therapy and diagnostic imaging in lung cancer.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Xiaoyuan Chen, Prof. Wei Zhang, Prof. Li Fan and Prof. Jing Ye for their generous support and Fan Guo, Chao Wang, Xiaowei Ma, Zhiyong Quan, Guiyu Li, Jin Zeng, Zhiping Yang, Xiaohu Zhao and Mei Yang for their technical assistance.

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Author notes

  1. Fei Kang, Zhe Wang, Guoquan Li contributed equally to this work.

  2. Weidong Yang, Jing Wang also contributed equally to this work.

Affiliations

  1. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, No.127 West Changle Road, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China

    Fei Kang, Zhe Wang, Guoquan Li, Shengjun Wang, Daliang Liu, Mingru Zhang, Mingxuan Zhao, Weidong Yang & Jing Wang

  2. Department of Pathology, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, No. 127 West Changle Road, Xi’an, People’s Republic of China

    Zhe Wang

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  1. Fei Kang
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Correspondence to Weidong Yang or Jing Wang.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81401442, 81230033, 81227901, 81371594, 81572252), the Post-doctoral Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2015M582802) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFC0103804).

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The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Kang, F., Wang, Z., Li, G. et al. Inter-heterogeneity and intra-heterogeneity of αvβ3 in non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer patients as revealed by 68Ga-RGD2 PET imaging. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 44, 1520–1528 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-017-3696-2

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Keywords

  • Small cell lung cancer
  • Non-small cell lung cancer
  • Integrin αvβ3
  • Cilengitide
  • 68Ga-labeled dimerized-RGD