Very probable ‘Detecting metastatic...

Very probable

‘Detecting metastatic disease

Australia-headquartered imaging firm Imagion Biosystems evaluated the ability of its MagSense HER2 agent to detect axillary lymph node metastasis in HER2-positive breast cancer patients who have suspicious nodes by conventional imaging.The MagSense HER2 imaging agent is an anti-HER2 molecule conjugated with magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles.

Imagion CEO Isaac Bright presented data at the meeting from a 13-patient Phase I study, which confirmed that this agent is detectable by MRI and pathology assessments and that it drains into the lymph nodes.In scans after the MagSense HER2 agent was administered to patients, radiologists observed a distinct and differentiable MRI appearance in morphologically normal and suspicious nodes, which independent radiologists confirmed in a blinded review.

Normal lymph nodes had homogeneous hypointensity on MRI scans, while morphologically suspicious nodes showed partial irregular darkening or speckled heterogeneous hypointensity. The suspicious nodes that were biopsied confirmed the presence of HER2-positive nodal metastasis."MRI assessment of [MagSense HER2] imaging performed similar to or better than standard-of-care axillary ultrasound imaging," Bright said.

In her review of the data, Dehdashti agreed that this agent showed it could evaluate HER2 status of the metastatic region noninvasively, and "hopefully in the future, may lead to less biopsies and facilitate the start of the therapy [earlier]," she said.’