Phase II study of uPAR-PET in neuroendocrine tumor patients demonstrates strong prognostic value and supports potential future use of uPAR-targeted radionuclide therapy
Results from an investigator-initiated phase II study performed by researchers at Rigshospitalet using the uTRACE[®] technology have now been published online ahead of print in the prestigious Journal of Nuclear Medicine. The study demonstrates strong prognostic value and that uPAR is expressed in the majority of neuroendocrine tumor patients. The abstract of the article is freely available here (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35058319/).
The phase II study
The phase II trial (NCT03278275) aimed to evaluate the expression of uPAR in neuroendocrine tumor (NET) patients as well as the prognostic value of uPAR-PET with 68Ga-NOTA-AE105 (uTRACE®). A total of 96 patients of all tumor grades were included and followed for a median of 28 months. The main findings were; 1) the majority, 68%, of all patients and 75% of patients with high grade (NEN G3) tumors had uPAR positive lesions indicating that uPAR as a target for targeted radionuclide therapy may be relevant for the majority of NET patients and notably also for high grade patients, and 2) that uPAR-PET could be used for prognostication both with regard to progression-free survival and overall survival. The authors suggested that “uPAR PET is relevant for risk stratification and uPAR may be a promising target for therapy in patients with NEN”.