University of Coimbra researchers test innovative technique for lung cancer treatment guidance

English version: Diana Taborda

A research team from the University of Coimbra (UC) has tested for the first time in Portugal the Immuno-PET, an innovative technique that can help predict the response to immunotherapy treatments, a therapy used in patients with lung cancer. This ground-breaking imaging test may become part of the lung cancer staging tests, allowing the identification of the most suitable therapy for each patient. The technique is already being used in patients diagnosed with lung cancer in Coimbra and Leiria, as part of a clinical study being conducted at the Institute for Nuclear Sciences Applied to Health (ICNAS-UC).

Sónia Silva, PhD student at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra (FMUC), and also a pulmonologist and pulmonary oncology coordinator at the Pneumology Service of the Leiria Hospital Centre, highlights that Immuno-PET may allow "a better patient screening for the most suitable treatment" and "prevent wasting time, or even losing the patient, with therapies that will not lead to a response and control of the disease".

The use of this technique allows a full-body scan of the patient, signalling the areas that are affected by the cancer and predicting the response of patients to immunotherapy treatment, one of the most promising therapies used in patients with advanced lung cancer.

Lung cancer is currently the "main cause of death from cancer in our country, with a growing number of cases", adds Sónia Silva. It is also "more aggressive and this is very much related to the fact that patients already have tumours in advanced stages, as the early stages, which are eligible for surgery, often cause no symptoms", she stresses. In these advanced cases, the disease is no longer only in the lungs, but in several organs, which corresponds to stage IV.

The pioneering use of this technique is taking place as part of a clinical study involving the Pulmonology Service of the Leiria Hospital Centre (CHL) and the Pulmonology Department of the Coimbra Hospital and University Centre (CHUC), in collaboration with ICNAS. The study is part of Sónia Silva's PhD research project, supervised by Antero Abrunhosa, Director of ICNAS, and Carlos Robalo Cordeiro, Director of FMUC.

In addition, Immuno-PET is also expected to contribute to therapeutic sequencing, allowing guidance regarding the ideal duration of treatment, since it is a non-invasive, painless test, which is more tolerable for patients.

Immuno-PET does not replace other diagnostic tests - such as a biopsy or the standard PET scan -, but it may come to work as a complementary technique that will help make clinical monitoring of the patient quicker and more effective by allowing an understanding of the response to therapy.

Antero Abrunhosa points out that "this clinical study has been possible thanks to the excellent collaboration between ICNAS, FMUC, CHUC and CHL and to the existence of a multidisciplinary team involving chemists, physicists, engineers, technicians and doctors who work together to successfully implement a project that combines research excellence with the improvement of hospital healthcare".