title: Importance of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography scanning for the monitoring of responses to immunotherapy in follicular lymphoma.
abstract: We prospectively investigated the use of [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) to kinetically monitor cell activation in six follicular lymphoma patients vaccinated with tumor lysate-pulsed autologous dendritic cells. PET revealed additional initial nodes suggestive of lymphoma, that were of less than 10 mm of diameter on computed tomography, and documented disease progression with sensitivity, even within loci with no significant variations of CT findings. Although tracer fixation was not observed in the inguinal nodes draining the dendritic cell intradermal injection sites in the six patients, a transient marked increase in FDG uptake within malignant nodes was observed early after vaccine administration in a patient who achieved complete remission. In non-responding patients, we observed a continuous increase of FDG uptake associated with an increase in the size and number of pathological nodes/locus, or of involved loci. FDG-PET is a non-invasive imaging procedure that might be of crucial interest to detect cell responses induced by immunotherapies.
authors.affiliation: INSERM, CIC 509 Biothérapies, France. m-baudard@chu-montpellier.fr
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baudard
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Comte
authors.forename: Anne Marie
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Conge
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mariano-Goulart
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Jean François
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Rossi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy; D008224:Lymphoma, Follicular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018365:Neoplasm, Residual / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011877:Radionuclide Imaging; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D015996:Survival Rate; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18