Preclinical Research

Despite decades of intensive research in oncology, cancer often remains incurable causing an enormous burden to the patient, health care system and economy. In our aging society, the cancer occurrence will increase and amplify its effects in the future. Hence, intensive research in the development of advanced diagnostic and treatment approaches is needed to enhance cancer management.

Multimodality imaging (PET, SPECT, CT, MR) of tumor specific characteristics and their microenvironment is necessary to optimize personalized treatment of cancer. Therefore, the goal of the current project is to develop novel radiotheranostics strategies for imaging and treating cancer patients. Outcomes from this project will ultimately have a pronounced impact on patient selection, guiding treatment strategies in cancer, as well as monitoring the responses to therapeutic interventions, advicing towards personalized medicine.

Towards our goals, a consortium in preclinical research experts between Bergen, Tromsø and Trondheim will be established. Radiopharmaceuticals will be tailored to target tumor specific markers and immune cells participating in the tumor microenvironment of glioblastoma (GB), lung and breast cancer. Strategies for designing and radiolabeling the compounds will be coordinated by the Bergen PET radiotracer development center application. Activities in this project will be multidisciplinary and developed at all three sites. Thus, a close cooperation network in the fields of tracer development, pharmacology, chemistry, (radiation) oncology, (radiation) biology, nuclear medicine, immunology, drug development and machine learning (ML) will be established.

To support the theranostic success, conventional therapies such as chemo-, immune- and external radiation therapy will be used as complementary treatments to improve the personalized cancer care in the clinics. In addition, immune-markers are introduced as imaging agents and assessed for optimal selection of therapeutic interventions and treatments. Animal models of cancer will form the basis to investigate the performance of the developed radioligands and to evaluate the anti-tumoral effects of different treatment combinations. Concurrently, to improve quantitative measures and to monitor therapy-induced changes, novel ML methods will be developed and applied to the imaging data.

This will be further developed as a clinical tool to facilitate treatment selection and monitoring in routine clinical application.This scientific consortium, with its unique infrastructure and merged experience, will push forward the development of imaging agents, radiotheranostics and patient-specific nuclear therapies. We believe, with the aforementioned efforts, that the treatment burden will be reduced and the patience care significantly improved.

Rune Sundset

Rune Sundset

Leader

Partners

Work Packages:

WP1: Immuno-PET and lung cancer

Despite the demonstrated effectiveness of immunoregulatory agents such as immune checkpoint blockers (ICB) on refractory cancers, these therapies work satisfactorily only in a reduced subset of patients. Further, ICB treatments are not exempt of risks and are associated to very high costs. Reliable response biomarkers are needed to identify responders and non-responders, and conventional imaging…

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WP2: Radionuclide targeted therapy and imaging in Glioblastoma

The plasticity of GB tumor cells and their ability to infiltrate adjoining brain tissue limits the effectiveness of current cancer therapies. Microglia plays an important role in GB progression. Inhibition of EGFR and CSF-1R decreases microglia-stimulated invasion of GB cells. Specific radiopharmaceuticals targeting EGFR or CSF-1R will be developed (WP3/Bergen) and applied as (i) diagnostic…

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WP3: Phagocyte targeting in breast cancer

In spite of an enormous global research effort, astonishing preclinical cancer cures, and the approval of multiple formulations, nanomedicine’s impact on cancer patient care remains limited. Recently, it is becoming evident that this unsatisfactory exploitation may be tackled by considering nanodrugs’ extensive interaction with the immune system. Moreover, our collaborators recently demonstrated these interactions can…

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WP4: Advancing oncological PET imaging using machine learning

The work package on machine learning will develop data analysis methods in support of the other work packages. The aim is to use expertise in artificial intelligence to help solving the medical research questions in the 180° North project. Our work focuses in particular on how to fuse the information from data acquisitions with PET,…

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