Researchers in our Advanced Cancer Imaging Programme are evaluating a novel imaging technique to identify ovarian cancer cells wherever they have spread throughout the body. Knowing how many tumours there are, how big they are and where they are located will help doctors plan the best treatment for patients.
Patients taking part in the study at Addenbrooke’s Hospital are given an injection before they have a scan. They are injected with an antibody that, when inside the patient’s body, attaches to a protein called Cancer Antigen 125 (or CA125). This CA125 protein is found on the surface of ovarian cancer cells but not on the surface of healthy cells.
The antibody is also tagged with a radioactive substance before it is injected into the patient so that it will be visible during the scan.
A couple of hours after the injection, the patient has a combined positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Both PET and MRI scans are used routinely in hospitals and combining them gives a more detailed picture of the tissues inside the body. The location of any ovarian cancer cells, which now have the radioactive antibody attached to them, will be highlighted in the PET-MRI scan.
Patients on the study will have several PET-MRI scans in the week following the injection. This will help researchers determine the optimal time interval between the injection and the scan, when the radioactive tag is most visible.
The researchers are recruiting ten patients to this initial study to establish whether the new scanning method works. Patients who take part in the study will stay on their original treatment schedule. But if the new scanning method is successful, it could be used to diagnose and inform treatment for ovarian cancer patients in the future.
