Cellular-Imaging Center Designed to Speed Search for Earlier Diagnostic Cancer Tests, Treatments

A team of US cancer imaging investigators has begun a five-year research initiative to hasten the development of early diagnostic tests and new treatments for breast, prostate, and other common cancers.

Using sophisticated imaging approaches developed or used for the 10 years at Johns Hopkins [University] In Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center (ICMIC; Baltimore, MD, USA), the scientists will look for innovative ways to identify cancers in their earliest stages inside cells, and for ways to block or kill any of these cancer cells before the disease can metastasized to other tissues and organs.

“Our next round of studies is aimed at turning what we’ve shown to be feasible into clinical reality,” remarked cancer-imaging researcher Zaver Bhujwalla, PhD, who will act as the lead investigator of the expanded initiative. The expansion is made possible with more than USD 8 million in new grants from the US National Cancer Institute, a member of the US National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA). “By harnessing the very latest technology in noninvasive imaging using any single or combination imaging modality of MRI [magnetic resonance imaging], CT [computed tomography], SPECT [single photon emission computed tomography], PET [positron emission tomography], laser optics, or ultrasound we expect to develop tests that detect cancer faster and earlier, distinguish spreading or metastatic tumors from dormant ones, and develop better and more tolerable chemotherapy drugs that only attack cancerous cells, leaving healthy cells alone,” she added.

Dr. Bhujwalla noted that important developments in the last 10 years in genetic screening, tumor biopsy, and blood testing have led to millions more people surviving cancer as a result of early diagnosis and thorough treatment, particularly chemotherapy and surgery to remove any cancerous tissue. However, researchers reported that the next generation of cancer treatments would target the disease at the earliest, cellular level.

As director of the Johns Hopkins ICMIC, one of 10 such US funded research centers in the United States, Dr. Bhujwalla will oversee more than 30 Johns Hopkins researchers, biostatisticians, and lab technicians involved in the effort, advancing several existing and encouraging discoveries, as well as initiating new ones. Associate directors of the center will be Marty Pomper, MD, PhD; and Richard Wahl, MD.

As a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Russell H. Morgan department of radiology and the School’s Kimmel Cancer Center, she also will serve as lead investigator in all ICMIC studies performed at Johns Hopkins.

For the new round of ICMIC research, Dr. Bhujwalla has teamed up with Dr. Pomper to evaluate image-guided therapy for prostate cancer, a process known as theranostic imaging. Using a triple combination of SPECT and MRI, combined with optical or laser-guided imaging, the Hopkins researchers will try to identify cancerous prostate cells by targeting in on a protein found solely on such cells’ outside layer. Once these so-called prostate-specific membrane antigens (PSMAs) are found, investigators intend to use a chemically labeled drug, which can be monitored as it is absorbed into tumors, to kill the cancerous PSMA-labeled prostate cells, leaving healthy cells alone.

In another project, Richard Ambinder, MD, PhD, is also using theranostic imaging in a study of 24 patients with Kaposi's sarcoma, using PET scans, another type of noninvasive imaging, to guide a viral-activated drug, called bortezomib, to destroy tumor cells.

Peter van Zijl, PhD, and Dmitri Artemov, PhD, will study MRI techniques to detect the earliest possible metabolic and biologic alterations in breast cancer. Their goal is to find proteins or other small molecules that could serve as early warning signs of cancerous spread and, in combination with other genetic tests, identify women most at risk for metastasis.

Kristine Glunde, PhD, and Xingde Li, PhD are experimenting with laser imaging to examine collagen fibers in breast cancer tumors. Studies have revealed these fibers in distinct patterns in metastatic cancer, patterns that could be useful, in combination with other tests, to differentiate between women who require lymph node biopsy to see if their cancer is spreading, and those who do not.

Also funded by the latest grant will be a group of imaging pilot studies to gauge the speed of skin cancer progression, led by Steven An, PhD; to determine the amount of tumor shrinkage during pancreatic cancer treatment, led by Anirban Maitra, MD, PhD; to learn how cancer metastisizes to the lungs, led by Phuoc Tran, MD, PhD; and to evaluate novel treatments to prevent the spread of kidney cancer to the bones, led by Kristy Weber, MD.

Related Links:
Johns Hopkins In-Vivo Cellular and Molecular Imaging Center