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NCI-supported imaging researchers are studying a molecular imaging probe called fluorine-18 fluoroestradiol (FES) to help predict whether women diagnosed with advanced breast cancer will benefit from hormone therapy. The tracer points out breast cancer cells that have estrogen receptors and are most likely to respond to hormone therapy. This approach may help overcome the problems associated with using biopsies to determine estrogen receptor status in women with advanced cancer.
A second probe, fluorine-labeled thymidine (FLT), will soon enter NCI-funded clinical trials to measure how fast cancer tcells are replicating. When used before treatment, then soon after treatment begins, it may help determine the extent to which a tumor's growth is being slowed.
"Within the next year we expect to start perhaps a half dozen clinical trials of molecular imaging agents to monitor patients' response to cancer treatment," says Daniel Sullivan, M.D., associate director of NCI's Cancer Imaging Program, "and within two to five years, we will have a much bigger body of evidence about how these agents can help in choosing the most appropriate treatment and monitoring patient response."
Two new imaging modes are well into NCI-supported human testing. The Digital Mammography Imaging Screening Trial is comparing the diagnostic power of
digital mammography to conventional, film-based mammography, with results expected to be published in late 2004. The eight-year National Lung Screening Trial, launched in September 2002, is examining whether low-dose spiral computed tomography, used as a screening tool in people at high risk for lung cancer, reduces deaths from the disease compared with standard x-ray screening.
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