A Hunter College research team is advancing a diagnostic tool that heralds new treatments for metastatic breast cancer.
Professor Brian Zeglis of the Department of Chemistry and his collaborators at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center recently completed a clinical trial of a radioactive drug called 89Zr-pertuzumab that allows physicians to determine if a breast-cancer patient is positive for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Visualizing HER2-positive lesions can help guide biopsy and treatment of patients with diffuse tumors.
The radioactive drug the Zeglis Laboratory is testing represents a step forward from earlier diagnostic methods in terms of both efficacy and safety. The pilot study involves six patients and is the first time the substance has been tried in humans. Larger trials are planned soon.
“Too many patients miss out on effective treatments because it is so hard to tell who is a good candidate for certain drugs,” Zeglis said. “Our hope is that this imaging tool will help physicians identify the patients most likely respond to HER2-targeted drugs, and, so far, things are looking good.”
Zeglis also recently co-authored two important new white papers in the prestigious medical journal Lancet Oncology. One examines recent advances in the radiopharmaceutical sciences, while the other discussed logistical and educational challenges that face the rapidly growing field.
